Octodrama
by Hoorg
Summary: After saving the entire world from an evil telephone, Agent 8 goes back to Inkopolis to start his new life as a regular teenager. Agent 3 is happy to lend a hand and help him get used to the many inkling customs and traditions, although Agent 4 is quite a bit "jelly" about the fact that his boyfriend won't hang out with him as much anymore.
1. Agent 7 Is The Friends We Made All Along

**A/N: Just a quick note: Agents 3, 4 and 8 are the same age in this fic. Somewhere around 16-18, I didn't write the first chapter with a specific age in mind.**

 **Also, rating will be bumped up in future chapter due to some serious themes.**

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"Agent 3 reporting for duty, sir!"

The inkling boy stiffened his pose into a military salute in front of the door, forgetting for a moment that all the apartments had at least some level of soundproofing – probably due to the recent popularity of blasting pop songs at full volume in the ungodly hours of the night. Knocking was a less stylish way to let his presence be known, but it was pretty much the only option he had besides screaming on top of his lungs. He had done that once, and the building staff was not happy at all about it.

Three knocks against the rigid wooden door. It was possible to hear the muffled sound of footsteps coming from inside the apartment, followed by the faint metal jingle of keys being picked up. And finally, the sound of a lock being opened.

"Agent 3 reporting for duty, sir!" He tried again, looking up at the face of the person who answered the door. A fuchsia tentacle was draped over the right side of his face, covering his crimson eye. He was squinting with the uncovered left eye, either because of the lack of glasses or because someone had knocked on his dorm at two in the morning. He was a few inches taller than Agent 3 and currently wearing white squid-patterned boxers and a shirt with "I'm Rank X-treme!" written on it in big bubbly letters. He blinked a few times, before slowly walking out of the way so the other could get inside the apartment.

"I assume you want to sleep here today." He said bluntly, rubbing his tired eyelids.

"Someone's extra grumpy tonight, huh? Sorry for the late arrival, I was going to come here right away but you know I can't resist going to the late night turf wars." Agent 3 let out a small chuckle, visibly flustered by the sudden kiss. "So…What's up? What is the status update on our super-secret Inkopolis protection mission, Agent 4?"

"You've been missing for three whole days, Kama." The taller inkling's voice had a hint of worry to it, but it remained calm and calculated like its owner. "You said it was just a research mission on Mt. Nantai. When I called Marie to ask her to locate you using your communicator, she _gladly_ informed me that you and Cuttlefish were at least a thousand feet underground."

"It _was_ just a research mission, Sal! Until a group of octarians showed up out of nowhere, and... And–" Kama's sentence slowly devolved into an inaudible mumble as he felt his ink-stained hero jacket being unzipped and thrown away, revealing the black tank top he always wore underneath it.

"Cuts." Sal whispered to himself, trailing a hand along the bruises that ran from Kama's knuckles to about half his forearm. "What weapon did this to you?"

"Oh! That was actually uh... I kinda had to break a giant blender with my bare fists." He let out a small chuckle, scratching the back of his neck. He received a doubtful stare from Sal, followed the raising of one of his eyebrows.

"…Alright. I guess I can believe in that. That's not the weirdest thing I've heard during these three days." Sal finally let out a sigh, running a hand over his face. "I would have gone with you if I knew it was going to be that dangerous. You had me really worried, you know that?"

"Geez, you sound like my mom. It was fine, really!" Kama grinned, showing off the cute little fangs that Sal loved so much. Cheap trick, but it always worked. "There was a subway station with some weird… Jellyfish, I think? But turns out it was just a front to turn innocent people into goo that would be used to wipe out all life on Earth."

Sal quickly checked Kama's head for any signs of concussion, receiving an unamused look coming in return. "I'm telling the truth! And oh, I even made friends with an octoling! He was one of the guys who ambushed us during the visit to Mt. Nantai, but then we became bros after he saved me from being brainwashed by an evil telephone."

"Nothing you're saying makes sense right now, Kama. How about you tell me all about your adventure tomorrow afternoon after training? Also, Marie already informed me of the so-called "new agent welcoming party"happening Friday. For your octoling friend, I suppose."

Kama nodded and opened his mouth to speak, but then realized that saying Pearl and Marina from Off the Hook were going to become new agents as well would probably make Sal call for psychiatric help. He closed his mouth in a half pout that shifted into a smile once he felt Sal kiss his exposed forehead.

"Can you pick me up?" Kama asked after closing the door of the apartment, making a grabby hands motion at the other. Sal didn't need to be asked twice, carefully sweeping him off his feet and holding his legs and shoulders in a bridal carry-like position. "Thanks! Can you say the thing now?"

"I'm not going to say the thing."

"C'mon dude, I saved Inkopolis and probably the whole world! I deserve to hear the thing."

Sal let out a long, exhausted sigh. He closed his eyes for a moment, then took a deep breath and shifted his facial expression and voice to a more serious tone. "Agent 4 reporting to Sheldon. I've located this unknown object right outside my apartment. I have made sure it's not an octarian trap or anything of the sort, but its properties are still unknown. It doesn't look like it's made of sardinium or any other metal, but rather… Boyfriend material."

Kama burst into a fit of giggles, a small orange blush appearing on his face as he heard _the thing_ for about the tenth time that month. They soon arrived at Sal's bedroom, a place so neat and tidy that Kama sometimes had his doubts about whether or not his boyfriend even slept there. Sal gently put him onto the bed and moved his hands up to Kama's head, taking off the headband that tied his tentacles together in a small bun.

"You want me to wake you up when I leave the house at seven?" Sal walked around the bed and laid down besides Kama, pulling the blankets over them.

"Hm… Nah, my legs are gonna be hurting as heck tomorrow. It's gonna be the second time I don't watch you guys train though, is that alright?"

"Lin is going to be a little sad, but it's fine by me. We just need to practice formations, so it's not going to be that entertaining to watch."

"Dude, you guys are like the second best ranked battle team of all Inkopolis! It's never not interesting to watch." Kama retorted as he wiggled out of the rest of his clothes, now only in his boxers.

"Whatever you say." Sal turned around to face him, pressing his lips against Kama's for a brief moment before closing his eyes. "Sleep well, hero."

"Oh. It all makes sense now."

Sal was lying. Kama's story about his adventure the week prior did not make any sense whatsoever, at least from a logical standpoint. A human-made machine that had somehow survived twelve-thousand years and was using liquefied people as ammunition for a mass destruction weapon all along? It all sounded like the plot of some cheesy cartoon to him – although he did messaged Marie while Kama was getting himself a whale milkshake and the facts matched up pretty well.

"Dude, you're still insisting on wearing that face mask thing? You're not even sick." Kama frowned, taking another loud slurp of his drink. "You're not gonna be able to eat your… Whatever you just bought with that thing on."

"Soursop juice. They started growing this en-masse at the Kelp Domes, so it's getting much cheaper than before. And it's not really that hard." Sal rolled his eyes, tugging on the white mask that was currently covering his nose and mouth to loosen it up a little. He put a bendy straw on his plastic cup and reached the tip into the mask from above. "You do realize getting into a manhole is not a normal thing, right? That's why they made the shortcut to Octo Canyon there, so no one would accidentally enter it."

"I still did though. Crazy to think that not looking where I'm going while in squid form led to me becoming one of the most feared figures between the Octarians. I thought I'd just injure myself." Kama grinned, throwing his now empty plastic cup onto a nearby trash can. "How did _you_ find it then?"

"I thought I heard someone falling into it and went to help them." Sal's answer didn't sound very convincing, but Kama knew better than to force his boyfriend to say possibly embarrassing this about himself in public.

"Whatever. Oh yeah, are you excited to meet the octoling I told you about?"

"You bet I'm excited to meet the person who made my boyfriend not text me back until midnight for a whole week because you're supposedly showing him around."

"Aww, is someone getting jealous now?" Kama smirked, gently nudging Sal's arm with his elbow and causing him to choke on his drink for a moment.

"No. Of course not." Sal responded almost mechanically, and then suddenly disappeared from sight. Upon closer inspection, Kama could see that they had already arrived at the manhole that was actually a secret passage to Octo Canyon. How Sal could turn into a squid so fast was a mystery, but it was one of the factors that led to him being one of the best of all Inkopolis. Kama rolled his eyes at his boyfriend's behavior and quickly followed behind him after making sure no one was looking his way.

The trip to Octo Canyon took only a few minutes. Kama could hear the sound of Sal sliding through the pipes in front of him, but the pitch-blackness of the passageway made it impossible for him to actually see anything. Soon enough the tube made a sudden vertical turn, and they came out of the manhole on the other side. Sal was patiently waiting for his boyfriend besides the exit, looking blankly at nowhere in particular. Kama took his hand and soon the two of them walked forward through the metalic bridge that connected the entryway to the rest of the land.

Tentakeel Outpost remained pretty much identical after Octavio's second defeat. The only notable difference was that all the kettles were now carelessly shut with duct tape. On the plane stone ground besides it, there was a large checkered picnic blanket with all sorts of snacks and drinks over it. There were two people sitting by each side of the cloth square: Callie and Marie in one, Pearl and Marina on the other, an empty space for the two, and the last one had Captain Cuttlefish sitting besides a not-so-unknown octoling.

"…And that's the story of how I almost went to jail!" The shorter inkling known as Pearl said with a grin on her face. She was the first to notice their arrival, although the whole group turned their heads to face them soon after. "Oh hey Agent 3! Who's that guy with you? I thought this was supposed to be a secret meeting or something."

In a rather awkward turn of events, three people replied simultaneous: Kama said "boyfriend", Marie answered with "Agent 4" and Sal himself simply repeated his name. The two of them sat down quietly, with Kama sitting next to the octoling and Sal besides Marie.

"Loos like everybody's here!" Callie smiled, clapping her hands together. She was wearing a beanie with a star on it, black shorts and a simple gray shirt under a pink coat. "Grandpa, the speech."

"What speech?" The googly-eyed elderly inkling tilted his head slightly in confusion.

Callie let out a sigh. "The speech for the new agents. We made one yesterday, remember?"

"Ah yes, I do now!" Cuttlefish suddenly jumped to a standing position all of a sudden, almost stomping a piece of toast with his old sandals. He would have cracked all his joints, if inklings had any.

"Ahem. We are all gathered here today to cherish the brave acts demonstrated by our fellow inkling and octoling partners. The fight against the Octarian Army feels like an everlasting event, but our struggles and the power of the Calamari Inkantation have brought us one step closer to a peaceful future where inklings and octolings will be able to coexist in peace. Marina Ida, Pearl Hime and… Hey, what's your name again?"

The octoling got flustered as all the eyes were suddenly placed onto him, a small red blush spreading across his face. He wasn't sitting down like the others, instead being in a peculiar squatting position – The same pose he did on the helicopter ride, as Kama remembered. He was wearing a white crop top and black shorts, coincidentally (or not) matching Marina's black crop top and white shorts. Sal wondered if showing one's abdomen was something significant in octoling culture.

"Eh? Ah, that's right, you still didn't get your memories back yet, did you?" Cuttlefish pointed his cane at the boy.

"A-Ah, no no, I did already." He raised his arms defensively. His voice was soft and somewhat relaxing, even when he was flustered like that. "I just… Haven't been named yet."

That sentence was met with surprised gasps and gazes – except from Marina, whose smiled seemed to falter a little. Perhaps she knew the reason for that? Nevertheless, her joyful demeanor returned as soon as Kama looked over at her.

"Well, why don't you choose a name now then?" Kama finally broke the awkward silence. "Take as long as you want, of course! You can change it later since you haven't made an ID card yet, but it's still a pretty big decision."

It was the octoling's turn to get surprised, almost losing his balance. He raised a hand to his chin, pondering for a while before speaking up. "I… I think Fen is a nice name."

"Fen! It's certainly nice indeed." Cuttlefish nodded, continuing his speech. "Marina Ida, Pearl Hime and Fen! I hereby proclaim you agents 5, 6 and 8 respectively."

"Aren't we missing a number?" Marie asked, fidgeting around with the folds of her traditional kimono absentmindedly.

Marina nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I think we don't have an agent 7 yet. Or… Do we? I don't know, I joined today after all."

"Why of course we do. I'm agent 7!" Cuttlefish made a peace sign with his free hand, and was met with facepalms and disappointed sighs from the other inklings.

"No grandpa, you can't be agent 7 because you're the leader of the group."

"Well as the leader, I proclaim that I can indeed be agent 7." Cuttlefish sat down again. Before they could start a arguing about the agent numbering issue, Pearl was the one who got up to speak.

"Yeah yeah, whatever gramps. Now that all the boys are here, it's time to discuss the REALLY important issues." She pointed at Kama and Sal with one hand and Fen with the other. "What are y'all's favorite idol duos: Squid Sisters or Off the Hook?"

"Pearlie, we discussed about this earlier…" Marina sighed, but she knew very well there was no way to stop the pygmy squid when she had her mind set on something.

"I'll go first! I like the Squid Sisters the most!" Kama said with a smile, making Callie wrap an arm around her cousin and cheer. "Sal, what about you? I guess this is something I've never asked you, is it?"

Sal crossed his arms. "I personally think idol culture is just another quick and reliable cash grab that is toxic to both the fans and the idols themselves. It idealizes a form of purity that is unnatural, while also encouraging sexual assault and stalking as if they were just normal fan behavior. Therefore, I refuse to pick a side in this vile cycle of catering to shallow trends and dropping off singers as soon as they're too old or act in the slightest in a way that is harmful to the company that employs them. I'd much rather listen to bands such as Turquoise October, who do it for the love of the music rather than fame and fortune."

"…"

"Um, the Squid Sisters changed my life with the Calamari Inkantation, but… After being introduced to the inkling culture by Kama this week, I think I kinda prefer Off the Hook's songs." Everyone let out a sigh of relief as Fen broke the tense silence.

"Hm… I didn't expect it to be a draw." Pearl pouted, sitting back down. "I guess we're gonna have to wait for an agent 7 to show up to end this once in for all."

"Agent 7 is here, and he likes the Squid Sisters best!"

"For the last time grandpa, you're not agent 7!"

"I can be whatever I want, I'm a grown squid!"

"Maybe we should make Sheldon agent 7 since he always helps us a ton?"

"Be quiet Kama, the adults are talking!"

"You're barely twenty years old yet!"

"And somehow still more mature than you are!"

Sal watched as the "discussion" quickly shifted into a bunch of incoherent screaming in which even Marie and Marina were taking part. He stuffed a bunch of popcorn in his mouth with a sigh, and then placed the bowl in front of Fen. "They're going to take a while. Welcome to the New Squidbeak Splatoon, it's like this everyday and it's only going to get worse."

"Hey, don't discourage Fen like that just because you're jealous." Kama teased, nudging Sal's side once again (fortunately not making him choke this time). The shouting suddenly stopped and everyone was looking at Sal with smirks on their faces.

"I'm not jealous. This is a misunderstanding." He rolled his eyes, starting to scout for different foods across the picnic blanket so all the looks he was getting wouldn't fluster him.

"He's been grumpy because I've been spending more time with Fen than with him this week."

Pearl chimed into the conversation before Sal could make an excuse for himself. "Don't worry, I know how you feel! I wouldn't let anyone take Marina away from me!"

"Marie is also the jealous type, you know?" Callie covered her chuckles with a hand in front of her mouth. Marie simply nodded, focused on eating rather than paying full attention to the conversation. "She's never let me have a boyfriend myself because she didn't want someone other than her spending time with me."

"I'll… I'll try not to steal your boyfriend, Sal." Fen said in a sarcastic yet fairly genuine sounding tone, which made the whole group burst into laughter.

"Oh shut up. All of you." Sal crossed his arms over his chest. It was probably no use talking to them anymore, he just wished the topic would change soon enough.

It wasn't as if he didn't like the octoling – much the opposite, he seemed pretty chill _("and kind of cute"_ ) and would probably make a great friend for Kama. But he just had a bad feeling about the situation. Something he couldn't really explain without sounding like he was just jealous.

It's like he always said: Something must go wrong eventually.


	2. Sometimes We Say Things We Don't Mean

**A/N: This chapter was originally going to be REALLY different? I started writing the first topic of my outline and got carried away by different scenarios. 2000 later, this came out. I hope you enjoy it!**

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"Sorry Sal, I gotta go t–"

"Take Fen to do something. I am aware. That is the same excuse you have used all month."

Kama frowned, looking over at his grumpy boyfriend currently sitting by his computer. He had a notebook on his lap and a pencil on his hand, scribbling down things Kama couldn't make out because of how dark the room was. The computer screen was pretty much the only light source in the room besides Sal's tentacles – which (as usual) glowed in a calming shade of fuchsia. It was his favorite color, after all.

"I was just messing with you before, but now I'm really starting to think you're jealous of me and Fen." Kama walked closer, leaning down a bit so he'd be at eye level with the computer screen. It was currently displaying a multitude of pictures of some hotel he didn't recognize. "What are you doing?"

"They released official footage of the new stage this morning. I'm trying to figure out what formations will work the best on it so we can get a head start on the Acrodolphins next week. I can't figure out what portion of the ground is supposed to be the actual stage, but… I'm making some progress."

"Isn't Tai the one who usually organizes the formations for you guys?"

"It is, but I'm helping her with this one. I've had a lot of free time recently." Sal's voice didn't have any sarcasm in it, but Kama knew just what he was implying. With a huff, he quickly snatched Sal's White Arrowband glasses right out of his face.

"Real mature, Kama." Sal rolled his eyes, squinting to try to recognize his boyfriend's facial expression.

"Can you at least look at me while I talk to you?" Kama took a few steps back so he'd be out of Sal's immediate reach. "What's going on with you? Talk to me about it."

"There is no way I can talk to you about it without sounding like an asshole." Sal extended his hands, gesturing for him to give back his glasses.

"C'mon, I more than anyone else understand what you mean! Just… Say something at least, please."

Sal took a deep breath before speaking up again. "I just… Get bad vibes coming off from that guy."

"…Sal, that's–"

"No, it's **not** because he's an octoling. It's not even him that gives off the vibes, it's… I just feel bad about the general situation involving him."

Kama raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean by that?"

Sal slowly turned to face Kama, the wheels of his computer chair producing a slow rumble that for some reason made Kama shudder a bit. "For starters, you never invite me to _"show him around"_ with you."

"That's…!" Kama cursed himself mentally. Sal was right about that. "I just assumed you were busy, that's all!"

"Then, you never tell me what you actually do with him. Just some vague short sentences like " _oh we got him some documents_ ". Sometimes you don't even tell me anything at all when you arrive. And when I ask you myself, it honestly sounds like you make stuff up on the fly."

"I just… Don't wanna bore you with the details!" He raised his arms up defensively. "What, you think I'm cheating on you? That's ridiculous, I… I love you, dude!"

"And so do I," Sal got up from his chair, taking slow steps towards Kama, "but this is getting ridiculous. Why don't you want me to do things with you two? You should be the one speaking up right now."

Kama let out a small gasp as he felt his back hitting one of the room's walls. The exit to the living room was directly to his left, and Sal's closet was blocking his right. He could probably run away in time, as Sal wouldn't run after him at full speed because of the lack of glasses, but he felt like that would be too much. Sal was already suspicious enough of him.

"Kama. It doesn't have to be this difficult. Just please tell me what's going on."

The shorter inkling gulped, trying to think of an answer quick enough not to seem too suspicious. In truth, it had all just been a bunch of coincidences that led to the rather sketchy-looking scenario. Kama had just been so excited to show this new octoling around that he just completely forgot about his own boyfriend for a little while. It wasn't a pretty answer. It was barely _an_ answer, and he knew Sal wouldn't believe him if he said it. At that moment, Kama had three options: not answering (the worst out of the three in his opinion), being genuine and spending a long time trying to reassure his boyfriend he wasn't cheating on him while also including him in the future plans he had made with Fen, or making up an answer to shift the direction of the conversation altogether.

The inkling brain, much like the brain of the ancient humans, had one specific fault. It always chose the worst option when it was under too much pressure and on a strict time limit.

"Why… Why do you even care! You've got your face in that computer of yours all day!"

Sal stepped back at the words, looking visibly surprised as he tried to make out Kama's facial expression from the distance. Was he mad at him now?

"Kama, what's gotten in–"

"You're either doing that or you're training! You're just always training!" Kama stomped his feet on the ground, starting to get a little too deep into his act. "You never take me on dates and stuff anymore! You didn't even act excited when I returned after being away from **three days**!"

"Kama, that's not t–"

"All you care about is your rank, Sal! What do you even get from it, huh? Just some stupid money? Is there nothing else you're good at?!"

The room suddenly fell into deep silence. The mechanical whirr of the computer and the noises coming from the closed bedroom window were muffled by a tension that was so thick it was almost possible to be swam on in squid form. Kama had an even stronger expression of shock in his face than Sal did. No, not shock – pure panic. He knew he had said something wrong. The almost exact set of words Sal had asked him not to use a long time ago for reasons he could not remember at the moment.

 _He messed up._

"Sorry I… _Ihavetogonowbye_."

Kama carelessly put the glasses back on Sal's face and ran out of the room with all the speed he could muster, slamming the apartment door as he rushed past the hallway and through the stairs that would take him to the exit on the first floor.

Sal remained in that position for a good five minutes, not fully able to comprehend just what had gone down between the two. Then slowly, his vision started to get blurrier. Small teardrops fell onto the floor in quick succession before he could even process the intense emotional pain he was in. He clutched his stomach, limbs. He managed to make it halfway through the way to his bed before his legs gave way and he dropped onto the floor and curled into a ball. His glasses slipped out of his face during the sudden motion, crashing onto the ground and sending shards of the lenses flying everywhere – though fortunately neither of them actually hit him.

" _ **Is there nothing else you're good at**_ _besides being a disappointment to your parents, brat?"_

 _Sometimes, Sal wish his parents would hit him like the other kids' parents did to them. It would hurt, sure, but the pain was temporary. Cuts could be mended, burns healed when submerged in ink, and blunt impact wasn't much of a threat for the inklings, whose body could stretch and squash almost at will due to their lack of bones or any other truly rigid structures._

 _But was no way to fully heal one's mind. Especially not one from an eight years old boy who has already lived through so much._

" _Answer me." His father's voice was stern and hard, almost able to break solid rock on its own. He slammed down a piece of paper onto the table – Sal's report card – staring at his son with the same deep crimson eyes that the boy possessed. "Just what do you plan on growing up into with grades like these?"_

" _I… I don't know… I'm… I don't know what I am…" Sal fidgeted with his fingers, forcing himself to look at his father's rage-filled face. He knew there would be shouting if he looked away, and that was the last thing he wanted._

" _You're an ungrateful little brat, that's what you are." It was his mother's turn to scold him. Her tentacles squirmed and slithered above her head, the color of her ink rapidly flashing between red and white to show just how angry she was at the situation. "We've spent a fortune on you. Basketball, martial arts, skating and even novel writing. And yet you still don't seem to be putting effort into anything you do at all!"_

" _I… I'm trying my best, mom!" Sobs got mixed into Sal's voice as he talked. "I'm just… I just can't be like the other kids! I'm… I-I don't know what's wrong with me!"_

" _I'll tell what's wrong with you: you're only acting like this because you think your actions won't have any consequences. But you're wrong."_

 _His father started walking towards Sal's bedroom, his boots making a loud and metallic noise. Sal already knew where this was going, and he wasn't ready for it. He tried running away from the living room, but his mother caught him dead in his tracks. His father came back with a large notebook. The cover was originally white, although it had been doodled on multiples times and using multiple colors of crayons. There was a word written in the middle with plain black pencil, reading "events". It didn't look like it was done by Sal, since the handwriting was different from the rest of the scribbles. In fact, it looked like it had been forcefully placed there at a recent time, as white-out had been used to make way for the term._

 _The adult opened it on a page in the middle of the book, scanning the contents on the paper before placing the book on the table in front of Sal. "We have one rule. You do well, and we'll do whatever your stupid little brain could ever want as long as it is within the law. And somehow, it's the third time this month you have failed us. Here is what happens when you don't keep your part of the promise."_

 _His father took a red pen from his suit's chest pocket and took the cap off, making Sal gasp and quickly cover his mouth. "Wahoo World? Come on, you're not even smart enough to remember to put your seatbelt on. You'd get yourself killed at the first rollercoaster ride."_

 _He made a red X over the name of the park with his pen. Sal clenched his fist, knowing the worst had yet to come._

" _You really think you're going to all these birthday parties? You know your friends don't really like you, they'd just feel guilty if they left you by yourself because of how pathetic you are."_

" _A new pencil sharpener? Did you swallow the last one's blade or anything? Guess you're not even competent enough to accidentally of yourself."_

" _Soursop juice? Is that even a real drink, or did you manage to write the name wrong? Is water not enough for you now, brat?"_

 _One by one, his father crossed off everything Sal had wanted – no, dreamed of getting – that semester. And then finally, without skipping a beat, he flipped over to the last page. It contained just once sentence, but it was the one that had the deepest meaning to Sal out of all of the rest._

" _ **Move to Inkopolis**_ _? How… Dare you!"_

 _In a single motion, the man tore the page off the notebook, shredding it to pieces with his hands. Sal screamed and kicked the whole time as he watched, but he was unable to get out of his mother's grasp. He was forced to stare at his dreams literally being torn away by his father. With every piece of the paper that was shred, he felt a piece of his soul also got tore out to match. And in the end, there was nothing left but a handful of incoherent fragments of what once was a beautiful future._

" _Shut up, Sal!"_

" _You've brought this onto yourself, don't cry!"_

" _You deserve this!"_

" _Sal!"_

"Sal!"

"Sal? Sal? Are you alright?"

Sal didn't know how long it had been since he had succumbed to the unpleasant memories, but the tears that stained his clothes had already dried off. The computer screen had gone dark due to lack of activity, but there was a new light source in the room. A faint glow coming from above – a gentle blue tone, hovering over his emotionally tired body.

"I'm so sorry about that, Sal. I really… I really didn't mean any of that, I just… Oh no, were these your glasses?"

Sal watched motionlessly as a hand entered his field of view, grabbing the now empty glass frame and pulling it upwards. "Oh no, I'm… These were your favorites, weren't they? I'm… Come here, let's get you up."

The sound of soft steps echoed through the room, and the soft lighting moved along with them. After a while, he felt a pair of arms grabbing him by the sides and pulling him up. He made an effort to stand again, but he still felt weak. He used the nearby bed as a support, finally looking up and looking at his boyfriend's face.

"Sal?" Kama frowned. His boyfriend's face was a mess. It was possible to see he was trying to keep himself together, but the sobs just kept coming out of his mouth. "I know what I said was wrong. I… I have no excuse for how I acted. I don't… Know if you can forgive me, but…"

Sal didn't answer. Kama waited for a while longer, then went ahead and wrapped his arms around him. Finally, after about a minute, Sal returned the hug. He was crying heavily onto Kama's back, staining his clothes with his slightly fuchsia-tinted tears.

"It's alright, buddy, it's alright. I'm here now." Kama had a sad smiled on his face, starting to shed blue tears of his own. "How about we spend the weekend by ourselves? I've already talked with Fen about it, and… It'll be just us, alright? I promise. I'm gonna go open the window."

Kama tried to get up, but soon felt a hang weakly tugging at his sleeve. His voice was equally as vulnerable sounding, almost as if he was using all of his available energy to speak. "No. Stay with me… Please."

"Ah, I'm sorry." Kama gave him a warm smile, sitting back down and gently dragging Sal's tentacles aside so he could kiss his forehead. "I love you, Sal. I won't do that again."

"I'll always be here for you."


	3. Suddenly I Can't Read

The streets of Inkopolis were always bustling with excitement, and today was no different. Inklings, octolings, jellyfish and even some more rare critters like shrimps and urchins crowded every corner of the streets.

There was a sweet spot - a period in the morning when the streets were less crowded while a good amount had already open. There were entire forums and websites dedicated to this period, although someone who had been living in Inkopolis for some time could almost perceive it as a sixth sense.

"Okay! We finished getting your documents ready last week, and now you're technically a citizen of Inkopolis." Kama handed to Fen a plastic bag containing a multitude of papers, cards, and a sheet of paper explaining what each thing was used for - something Sal had suggested since someone had given him the same when he moved to Inkopolis himself. "But! You might live here, but that doesn't mean you _live_ here yet. We made a shopping list full of stuff you'll need to adapt well in Inkopolis. Sal, the list."

Sal nodded, closing the several social media apps that were open in his phone and pulling out the text document he and Kama had written the night prior. "First thing's a phone."

"Phone it is! I know just the place." And with that, they headed out to a nearby MakoMart, walking inside the almost maze-like complex until they had reached the electronics section. Passing through multiple videogame and televisions specific areas, they found themselves in front of a display that contained a variety of different smartphones and related accessories. "Chose whatever you like, Fen. I can pay for it."

"Are you sure? I don't want to leech all your money in the very first store we go to..." Fen fidgeted with his thumbs.

"It's no big deal. His family is like, the richest in Calamari County. He likes to remind us about it every time money becomes the subject." Sal teased, looking at some wireless headphones. "Just don't let it get to your head. Sometimes things that are expensive are worse."

Fen nodded and started looking through the phones. A few minutes later, he pointed at the device he wanted: A simple black rectangular model with a relatively big screen and pretty much all the essential features a teenager would need. Kama called one of the store attendants to get the phone for him, and soon enough Fen had himself a brand new Clamsung Galaxy.

"Should we stop to let him learn how to use it?" Sal asked. His right ear was now adorned by a single-piece headphone, which he had already connected to his own cellphone via Bluetooth.

"Nah, he's a grown squid... Octopus, he's a grown octopus. Besides, I've heard that the octolings have these crazy high-tech machines at their place, so this should be an easy task for him." Kama tipped the especially kind attended and walked out of the store besides the two. "Just like, hold his hand so he doesn't bump into people while he's getting the hang of it. I mean, if that's fine with you two."

"Fine by me." Fen muttered, already deeply engrossed in the dozens of applications that came pre-installed with the device. Sal gently grasped his free hand. Both of their fingers should have a certain roughness to them due to the frequent handling of equipment such as weapons, but Fen's hand was actually really smooth. Sal didn't want to do too much without the boy's permission, but he really felt like giving that soft and warm hand a few squeezes. He had good self-control, though.

The touchscreen was new to Fen, but he knew how to operate pretty much everything else. He had already gotten the basics down by the time they had arrived at their next stop, which was a youthful looking general clothing shop. This one wasn't like the ones in Inkopolis Plaza or Inkopolis Square, in which all clothes had to follow guidelines so that they could be featured in televised Turf War or ranked events. Many of the pieces had ungodly color combinations and some were even kind of revealing.

Sal and Kama had wandered off to search for clothing together, leaving Fen to choose whatever outfit he desired without being judged. In the end, he had gotten himself a black and white hoodie, a pair of black sweatshorts and some stylish looking black checkered sneakers. Sal also had a bag of clothing with him, but Fen didn't feel like asking him what he bought since it looked like Kama was already teasing him enough for it. Kama once again paid for Fen's purchases and they went back to the streets.

"Whew, that was fast." Kama smiled. "Sal, what's next?"

"Sheldon and Turf War recon. It's also written here, "snacks whenever you feel like it". Can we have them now or–"

"Woah, wait wait wait." Fen gulped, waving his arms around erratically. "I… I don't want to be a part of any war, I don't…"

Both of the Inkling boys stared at each other, before Kama let out a small laugh. "Oh no, it's not war! Well, there's guns and war stuff but it's a sport! It's just for fun, just like the tests you did back at the Deepsea Metro."

"Ohhh." Fen nodded understandingly. He wouldn't have called the tests _fun_ , but he understood what Kama was trying to say. "Well, I'd be happy to try that after eating, in that case."

"That's the spirit! It's my favorite activity around here, so I hope you can get into it too. But let's eat something first." Kama looked around, finding a nice and not too expensive café near their current location.

Sal ordered a single cup of black coffee, while Kama got himself a large slice of strawberry cake. Fen was struggling a little to read through the slang dish names in the menu, but he eventually settled for a "Golden Experience Requiem" – which turned out to be just orange juice with some bits of chocolate floating in the glass.

"Hey, can I ask you something? It might sound a little rude, but I don't mean harm."

Sal shifted his gaze from the phone to Fen. "Sure, what is it?"

"Why do you never smile?" Fen took another sip of his drink, almost choking as a piece of chocolate slipped into his mouth involuntarily.

Sal didn't answer vocally at first. Instead, he simply grinned at Fen, who was surprised to see a full mouth of razor sharp teeth instead of the one or two fangs most other inklings possessed. "I don't like them."

"Ah, I think you look pretty cute." Fen gave him a small smile, making the faintest blush appear on Sal's face.

"Hey, me too! We have something else in common now." Kama gave a small chuckle. "My turn to asks questions. What's that thing on your ear, Fen?"

Fen took out the ornament in question, a golden ball with a skewer going through the middle that was previously tucked on his left ear.

"I don't know exactly, to be honest. But it's special." Fen shrugged. "I found it after I got all the memcakes at the Deepsea Metro. It made my memories come back when I put it on."

"Oh, so that was it? That's so cool! Can you tell us a bit about your past? Like what kind of classes did you take at school?"

"Hm… Heavy weapon maneuvers, long ranged combat two, advanced reconnaissance… My best subject was splat charger warfare!" Fen smiled, but it soon turned to a frown as he watched the others' confused expressions. "…Is this not how inkling schools work?"

"Well… We do have some classes about combat in physical education, but it's just the basics. We have stuff like… Math, history, geography… My favorite was fashion! Although I wasn't very good at designing outfits." Kama chuckled embarrassedly, scratching the back of his neck. "Did you like it?"

"Eh?" Fen was caught a bit off guard by the question, so he took some time to ponder before answering. "I mean… I didn't like the overly military atmosphere very much, but… I kind of liked the classes themselves? I hope this doesn't make me sound like a bad person…"

"Ah, not at all! People take combat classes as extracurricular activities here in Inkopolis. For turf war of course, not actual war. That's how I met Sal!" He smiled, patting Sal's back. "Care to tell the story?"

"I'm afraid that's going to have to wait. My new glasses got ready and I have to go over there to pick them up." Sal took his credit card out of his pocket and walked over to the counter to pay for his meal.

"Aw, do you really have to do it now?" Kama pouted.

"Yeah, I have some stuff I need to do after getting them anyways. Don't worry about it, I'll be back at the plaza in the late afternoon. I need to get back home early so I have a good night of sleep for the big match tomorrow." After paying, he headed over to their table and gave a quick kiss on Kama's forehead.

"Oh, that's tomorrow? Sorry, I totally forgot about it. But I'll be there of course! I'll even take Fen so he can cheer for you too." Kama waved at his boyfriend. "See you later then! I'll try not to get too touchy with him, but I can't promise anything."

"Neither can I. Your boyfriend's really cute." Fen teased, smirking.

"See you two." Sal gave Fen a friendly wave, but a small glare at Kama. He still wasn't totally over what happened the other day. He then proceeded to walk out of the café.

The optometrist's office wasn't too far away from the Square, but he preferred to take the train towards it instead of going by foot. He took his phone out and put some music on, then remembered he had forgotten something.

 **[Guest]** _**Bottom_Leader**_ **has joined the chatroom.**

Yo who's this?

 **Bottom_Leader** Oh.

 **[Guest]** _ **Bottom_Leader**_ **changed their name to Sal.**

 **DJ_Hyperfresh** Pffft.

 **Sal** Don't mention it.

Oh hey! You're that hipster dude from the secret agent club right?

 **DJ_Hyperfresh** Pearlie!

 **Sal** Indeed.

 **Sal** I am just here to remind Marina that I will be coming over to her house soon.

 **Sal** In about an hour and a half to be precise.

 **DJ_Hyperfresh** Oh right! I remember now. I kinda forgot about it so I didn't have time to tidy up the house, hope you don't mind. ;;

 **Sal** It's fine.

Wait if you're going over at Marina's then why didn't you just DM her?

 **Sal** I remembered you saying you're jealous and decided to let you know I'm going as well.

 **Sal** It would have been a not so pleasant situation if you suddenly arrived at Marina's home and saw me there, wouldn't it?

Oh yeah you're right.

Thanks for the heads-up! Going to the recording room for a while. Though I'll be back at the first sight of pictures being sent so don't do anything too naughty!

 **[Webmaster]** **has left the chatroom.**

 **DJ_Hyperfresh** Don't mind her! (/へ＼*)

 **Sal** I am going to pretend I did not read that.

 **DJ_Hyperfresh** Thank you.

 **DJ_Hyperfresh** So… Anything else you want to discuss before the actual meeting?

 **Sal** Not really.

 **Sal** See you there.

 **[Guest]** _ **Sal**_ **has left the chatroom.**

Sal closed the application just in time as the train arrived at the station. He quickly got up and headed towards the optometrist building, adjusting his current glasses. They were from his childhood – which didn't hold a lot of good memories – so he avoided wearing them unless absolutely necessary. Or in case Kama called him cute enough times while considering it. Otherwise, he'd just have settled for the contacts he used while playing turf war.

There was a small line at the office, but he didn't mind the wait all that much. He was going to browse through social media for some more time, but a familiar voice coming from the small TV in the corner of the room made him turn his focus towards it.

 **"Thank you so much for electing me, everyone. Squids, Octopi... Let's just all live together like a great family."**

 _Oh, him._ Sal glared hard at the television, with so much will that the channel went off the air for 0.00001 seconds. Other people in the line seemed to be watching the broadcast as well, but none with an expression angrier than his own.

The man had a humanoid figure, sporting arms, legs, hands and feet. Although from his neck up, his body was replaced by that of a catfish (not to be confused with its nearest cousin, the Zapfish). His big lips had a goofy smile adorning them, and he twirled his whiskers with his left index finger in a carefree manner. He was the epitome of friendliness from a first glance, and everyone else at the line was confused as to why Sal was trying to smite the man's televised image with invisible eye lasers.

A text snapped Sal out of his glaring.

 **Lin_G** Yo your buddy's on channel 5

 **Sal** Bad morning to you too.

 **Sal** If we lose against the Acrodolphins I am blaming this specific message.

 **Lin_G** What kinda lame name is that dude?

 **Lin_G** Also chill he only confiscated your weapon once and it was in S rank

 **Lin_G** And you kinda deserved it for going ham at those kids in a sponsored match

 **Lin_G** He's got some pretty interesting proposals as a president

 **[Friend]** _ **Sal**_ **changed their name to Bottom_Leader.**

 **Bottom_Leader** Suddenly I can't read.

 **Bottom_Leader** Don't be late tomorrow.

Sal locked his phone right on time as his name was called by the inkling at the counter. He simply went up to the counter, informed his business and got his repaired glasses. He immediately put them on, placing the ugly and old square glasses back into the backpack he was carrying. With no need to talk to anyone else in there, he walked back towards the train station and headed further north towards another part of Inkopolis.

If one didn't know about Inkopolis pop culture, they would think Coral Complex was just another regular set of middle-high class apartments. But it was a well known fact among natives that the place was like the second home to many famous figures who couldn't afford or didn't feel like staying at their luxurious homes for whatever reason. And even though the place was known for hosting the residences of many stars, there wasn't any amount of fans rounding the buildings and trying to take pictures at all costs. Even though the secret got out even before the building had even been finished, people still respected the place as if it was just another regular location.

Sal checked the apartment number from his phone and rang the intercom. A camera placed next to the entrance recognized his face and let him in soon enough. The buildings didn't have elevators, but luckily there were just two sets of stairs between the entrance and Marina's apartment. Sal checked the residence number one last time before knocking on the door.

"Coming! Let me find the keys." Marina's excitable voice was heard coming from inside. After a few seconds, the door opened to reveal her smiling face. She wasn't wearing her usual TV outfit, but instead a white crop top coupled with pastel green capris and a white bandana. She didn't have any headphones on, so it was possible to see her ears – rounded, just like Fen's. "Hey Sal! My schedule is a bit tight today, so we only have about an hour or so. Come in!"

"Not a problem." He nodded, making his way into her home. The decoration was just what one would expect from a recently purchased apartment: basic plain colored furniture, loads of cushions, large windows and the constant smell of the past. Marina had put her own twist into it, however. A lot of the furniture was made or patched with recycled metals and materials, some even looking entirely hand-made. There were keyboards and other musical instruments scattered around the house in a rather neat fashion. There were also a multitude of framed pictures of her and Pearl on top of every surface imaginable.

Sal watched as Marina sat on the couch, and decided to take a seat on the recliner on the opposite side of the living room. He took his backpack off his back and placed it on the ground, taking out a white notebook with a multitude of crayon doodles on the cover (and a curious empty space on the middle), as well as a pencil.

"So… You wanted me to tell you a little about octarian culture, right?" Marina placed her hands on her lap."

"Basically. I still don't talk a lot with Fen, and I thought getting to know his background better might help a little." Sal's gaze alternated between his notebook and Marina. "You can skip the questions that make you uncomfortable. I admittedly don't know a lot about the culture myself as most of the information available to me has been either slightly biased or outright anti-octoling propaganda. Don't miss any details, if possible."

"Alright! Um, where to start…" Marina raised a neon-green fingertip to her cheek, looking around the room as she pondered.

"Well, I guess the main thing you have to know is that our culture has become very… Military focused on the past years? I don't know exactly how to put it." She pouted slightly. "So… It's not uncommon for us to throw around honorifics and titles at people who are older or rugged-looking, you know? Also, most octolings have a strong sense of cooperativeness because of that."

"Interesting." Sal wrote down something on his notebook. "That reminds me… Octavio, why is his title "DJ" instead of something like major or commander?"

"Well… You know, the octarians have been trying to incorporate inkling culture into their own. You could say it's just another way to be popular with the teens." She let out a small laugh.

"Ah, I see. What about music? Only two bands I know are Turquoise October and… Well, Octavio."

"It's… Not really a big part of the culture, to be honest. It's even outright forbidden in some parts of the country. You know, because of the fear that someone might make something with a similar effect to the Calamari Inkantation." Marina nodded to herself. "You know… Last time I saw, Turquoise October had been placed in jail. They were going to be sheared right before I left…"

" _Oh._ " Sal's tone became uncharacteristically sad for a moment. "Sheared?"

"Well… How do I explain this…" Marina bit her lip, looking at the ground. "There's a machine that… When you place octoling tentacles in it, it… Well, makes new octolings out of them. I guess you could call it cloning in a way? It was already a thing before the machine was invented, as a natural mechanism to counteract low fertility rates. But now it's used as an execution method since… Well, no one really survives having all of their tentacles cut off."

"Wow." Sal was reluctant as to whether or not to write that down, but he did anyways. "Was… Is Fen one of these clones? Kama showed me some pictures of them when you were riding the helicopter, and he looked like he was wearing some sort of… Tag or something of the sorts."

"I'd guess so." Marina nodded. "Remember when he said he hadn't been named yet? That's because… Octolings born that way don't really receive a name until they achieve something like a combat victory or a new invention."

Sal nodded. The two of them continued discussing for the remaining hour of free time Marina had. Sal had about three pages worth of information by the time he walked out of her apartment. The conversation ended up being more about octarian history than cultural information, but it had been useful nonetheless.

It was already evening by the time his train reached Inkopolis Square. He was unsure whether to call Kama or to try to look for them around the square, until something caught his attention. A large amount of people was gathered in front of the Deca Tower – larger than the usual lines for turf wars and other battle modes. Upon closer inspection, it was possible to notice that they were all looking at one of the screens on the tower. The main one, in fact. Sal carefully made his way to the front of the crowd, bypassing some of the taller people so he could look at the screen himself.

He was deeply and utterly angered _disgusted_ by what he saw.

* * *

 **A/N: Dun dun dun!**

 **The school part was inspired by a tumblr post! I don't know if I can put links on fanfics, but their tumblr name is le-hibou. If you want the exact source, check out the link on the end notes of the story in my ao3 (link to that should be in my profile).**

 **Also, part 5 confirmed.**


	4. Something Has To Go Wrong Eventually

**A/N: HEY sorry for the possibly larger than usual amount of typos in this. I don't really have the energy to revise this rn, I just wanted to get it out here ASAP because it's honestly a pretty exciting chapter.**

* * *

"You know… I'm kind of starting to think your boyfriend doesn't like me, Kama."

Fen stared at his drink, figuring out how he was going to get the remaining chocolate pieces out of the now empty glass. He could just call the waitress and ask for a long spoon or something, but was that how it was _supposed_ to be done? Should he just make pieces slide into his mouth by tilting the glass? Was he supposed to have eaten them before the juice was over and now it was socially unacceptable for him to eat the chocolate? Would it be too weird to ask Kama for advice after saying a sentence as loaded as that?

"What? No way, he does!" Kama spoke with his mouth still full of cake. "He does like you, dude!"

"I don't know, he seems kind of... Suspicious when talking to me." Fen threw his worry aside and chose his second option. Nobody on the tables around them seemed to mind, nor did Kama himself, so he thought he probably chose the right option.

"Well... That's kinda my fault. I didn't really tell him much about you or what I needed to help you with until last weekend, so he got some bad ideas." Kama chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Ah, I understand. Should I stop with the jokes about you cheating on him with me then?"

"No! Well... Probably, but I don't want you to think this is your fault."

"Don't worry, I understand." Fen smiled reassuringly, finishing off the last of his drink. "Um... Also, are you really sure you should be paying for everything? I mean, I know Sal said you're rich and all that, but I still don't feel very comfortable in using you like this."

"It's really fine! No worries, we'll get you some cash right now. Right after I pay for your first set of clothes, that is."

"Eh? I thought we had already bought some."

"We did, but turf war clothes are different than regular ones! They give you abilities when you wear them during a match, like more speed or making your ink recover faster."

"Isn't that cheating?"

"Nope, everyone uses them! It's part of the game, in a way. You gotta choose the best combination of abilities for each situation."

Fen nodded in silence. Kama had finished his cake already, so they got up to pay for their meals and walked towards the Inkopolis Square.

Even though the Square was one of the most popular places in Inkopolis, it wasn't nearly as full as the rest of the city. The average inkling didn't spend a lot of time at the plaza, instead just using it as a meeting place or browsing the stores located in it before hopping into a match. They were all managed by different owners, although they did gave a passage connecting them so one could quickly hop from store to store while checking the products.

"Nice! Looks like you're pretty much all set up in the clothing department."

Although Kama wasn't going to admit it, he found it extremely boring to watch Fen browse and speculate on the different clothing combinations for a whole hour. Eventually, Fen came out of the central changing room, wearing a skull bandana, a dark bomber jacket and a pair of Orca woven high tops.

"Just put on some eyeliner and you'll pretty much look like me when I had a punk phase." He let out a chuckle. Joke apart, the octoling boy had picked up an interesting combination of main abilities (special saver, special power up and ink saver sub), and he did look pretty good in it! Pretty good indeed… Kama had to internally slap and remind himself that he already had a boyfriend so he'd stop staring like a weirdo. The inkling was wearing a Takoroka visor, a black Squideye shirt and navy Emperrial shoes. He'd have opted for a shirt with more sub slots if he was going solo, but he kinda wanted to look god around Fen.

"Hey, speaking of that… There should be one of those around here… Hang on!" Kama hushed to the counter and asked the current store's clerk, Jelfonzo, for a clothing catalog. He called Fen to the counter and started flipping the pages, going back at least two or so years worth of clothing lines until he'd stopped at one particular section. It read, "featured in Inkopolis Collection 2016". He ran his finger over the pictures until he stopped with a gasp, pointing at one of the clothing sets. A boy with his tentacles tied in a bun behind his head, wearing aviator glasses, a leather jacket, black jeans, moto boots and a belt that had a belt buckle in the shape of a squid.

"Rockenberg! I remember it was like, super hot in the event and I almost passed out twice. But it was pretty fun! That's how I got my name out there."

"Eh? You were a model?" Fen's eyes widened. He took the catalog and started flipping the pages to see if he found any more of Kama.

"Still am! Sal's not the only one who does cool things around here, you know." He let out a chuckle. "It's pretty fun! And I can't live off turf war alone anyways. Well… I could, but I don't like it _that_ much."

"You do look good in a cape."

"I do! We should just wear more capes in general. I gotta pitch that to Tentatek or some other company." Kama nodded. "Anyways! One more shop to go. And it's pretty much the most important one to play turf war."

Walking through another one of the interconnected doors, they found themselves in a new store. This one had plain colored walls that were filled to the brim with shelves upon shelves of weapons. Some even looked like they weren't commercially ready yet, and others clearly looked like they were being repaired. A cheery voice came from behind the counter, its owner popping from under it a few seconds later.

"Welcome to Ammo Knights! Say, have you got your Octo Shot with you right now?" Sheldon smiled. "A few octolings have been coming here with them, but they're not fully battle-ready yet. Just hand it to me and I'll prepare it for you, free of charge!"

"Oh. Um… Here." Fen nodded and took out the Octo Shot he had found at the Kamabo Corporation interior.

He put it on the table, and Sheldon simply placed two stickers on the barrel before handing it back. "There we go! Now you have access to splat bombs and the inkjet as well. Make good use of it!"

"Thank you!" Fen bowed politely, taking a look at the weapon. Nothing looked different from the outside, but he assumed those stickers would work only during a turf war match.

"Let's go have a look around! Usually you have to wait until you're a certain level to buy certain weapons, but Sheldon is making an exception for octolings since it's kinda hard to determine what level they would be. C'mon, go have fun! I'll pay for it as well, of course, don't worry about that."

Kama headed straight for the rollers' display, while Fen quickly browsed the whole store. Unlike during clothes shopping, it didn't take long until Fen found what he wanted. Kama was both surprised and relieved by the short wait.

"Splat charger and heavy splatling deco! Nice picks, I see you're more of a backline player." Sheldon quickly went into the backroom and got brand new versions of the weapons for Fen, still inside a box. "Do you want me to get them ready for you? Only takes a few minutes, and they'll be delivered to your Deca Tower storage space in case you already have one! Free of charge as well."

"That would be good, thank you." Fen nodded. "Though… I think I'd like to test the charger now, if that's possible."

"Of course! You could have done that before the purchase, but it's alright." Sheldon handed Fen the testing model of the charger and an ink tank, pointing to a door in the back of the shop. "Have fun out there!"

"Wait for me!" Kama hushed after him, carrying the test version for the carbon roller deco. After a rather lengthy explanation of how things worked during battles, including special weapon mechanics, ink color meanings, splatfest to good sportsmanship and squid (octopus, in Fen's case) form etiquette, they finally started testing their weapons.

The carbon roller deco was… Good in theory. Being able to splat enemies with a single close-ranged swipe was the main gimmick of the weapon, and the burst bombs provided a decent way to finish off opponents that had been weakened and out of the range of the roller. The special was probably the best thing in the set, though. One autobomb was already annoyingly dangerous, but a whole rush? It was sure to turn the tide of the battle. The major flaw, however, was that one would have to possess stellar positioning, speed and maneuvering to properly utilize it. Kama decided he'd stick to the original splat roller for now.

He after swinging his weapon around for a bit in the left side of the training area – the one with the moving targets – he crossed over to the right to check on Fen. It looked like he was testing the minimum and maximum range of the weapon and subweapon, as well as examining the design of the splat charger itself. He then pulled out a small notepad from one of his pockets, and started scribbling away his discoveries. Kama couldn't help but smile a little, recognizing that as something Sal did as well (though with much less frequency).

"So! What do you think?" Kama finally asked, walking towards Fen. He was glad to see the other wasn't startled by his sudden approach.

"The reload time is pretty long. And there's a bit of recoil. I don't think this would be very good in a war."

"Well… Probably not, but it's that way because it's not a war. Every weapon has some major flaws so everyone can have fun! It also incentivizes smart team compositing, since you have to choose something to compensate for your teammate's weaknesses as well as get an advantage on the opponent's bare weapon choice."

"It does make sense when you put it that way." Fen tilted his head to the side slightly, processing the new information, then smiled. "I think this is pretty good. I never thought something as blatantly violent as weapons could be used in a lighthearted game, but inklings never cease to surprise me. In a good way, now that I'm out of the battlefield."

"Yeah! Hey, you should try something related to philosophy or writing when you choose a job. You're pretty good with words." Kama smiled, making the faintest blush appear on Fen's face. "You wanna test the splatling as well? We don't need to get back into the shop, just shout and Sheldon will deploy it right here using some fancy drones."

"Well… Actually, I'd like to try it during a game, if that's okay." Fenn nodded. "It's just for fun, right? So there's no problem if I do that, I assume. And splatlings are supposed to ink the ground better than chargers, so I'll be way more useful than with a charger anyways."

Kama agreed to it and they soon headed out of the store. It was a short walk until their destination – Deca Tower. It was a structure that mimicked the famous Inkopolis Tower, but had a completely different story and aesthetic. Their primary function was the same, though: provide a lobby for all kinds of ink battles, as well as house a complex set of underground transportation rooms (like elevators, but also horizontal) to actually take the inklings to their destination.

Kama and Fen entered the main area of the tower, which was a massive waiting room with multiple sets of doors. Since they opted to form a duo, they would be paired together with other duos and squads. It was a way to make things fun – and also fair, since playing with friends usually implies that the coordination of a team will be much better. Soon enough the boys' duo number was flashed on a screen above an elevator, signifying the matchmaking had already begun. They stepped into the futuristic looking room – with techno music blasting at a moderate volume – and the room suddenly started moving around an undetermined space. After a few seconds, on a screen on the inside of their room, a message saying "squad found" flashed in bright letters, and the doors opened.

"Oh! Nice to see you here!"

It was a group consisting of three inkling girls. Two of them had two long and vaguely rectangular tentacles running in front of their face, a dark skin tone, pink eyes and matching pins orca pins. The third one was the tallest of them, with a "haircut" similar to Sal, except that the tentacle covering her right cheek was longer and thinner. They were all using different pieces of gear, but one thing they all had in common is that they all had the word "Tailslap" on the back of their body wear. They also all had the same color of ink – a deep and vibrant purple.

"Oh, hey girls! It's nice to see you here too." Kama smiled, holding his hands behind his back. "Sorry I couldn't watch the past training sessions, I was showing my new buddy around."

"I'm still pretty sad. But that's justifiable, I guess." One of the twins said in a monotonous tone. She directed her gaze towards Fen. "Hi. You look like use chargers frequently, your splatling stance is a little off."

"Eh?" Fen realized he had unconsciously gotten his splatling from the ground and started aiming towards the door. He released it, looking a bit embarrassed by his actions. "How did you know?"

"It's a long and boring answer." Her twin replied, looking down at the rapidly moving LED patterns on the wall. "I thought Sal was going to spend the day with you. What is he doing?"

"Ah, his Arrowbands broke so he's getting them fixed. Long story, but don't worry. I'm sure you're all going to do amazing at the match regardless of whether or not Sal is slacking off right now." Kama chuckled, redirecting his attention towards the taller inkling again. "So… Lin, what're you doing here? I thought you should be warming up for the match tomorrow or something?"

"We are. And what a better way to warm up than to do some charity work?" Lin smiled, though she frowned as she looked around her feet. "It's okay, sweetie, you can come out. The battle didn't start yet."

After a few moments, a short octoling girl came from behind Lin's legs. Her tentacles were tied in a bun above her head, uncovering the view of her pale and round face. She was missing a few of them, incidentally, and also had a bandage over her left eye. She didn't look like she was older than 14. Her face suddenly lit up as she saw Fen, and she hushed to talk to the octoling boy while loosening the grip on her Octo Shot.

"She… Well, we're not sure about what happened with her, but it seems she was abused by her clan back home." Lin frowned, glancing at the two octolings peacefully chatting. "I knew the next wave of charity matches would be with octolings, because of their recent en-masse arrival on Inkopolis, but still… Some of these kids are definitely not okay."

"Ah." Kama frowned as well, glancing besides him. "I'm… Lucky Fen doesn't hate me, since I was pretty much going to splat him for good if the Inkantation hadn't started played in time. I still say sorry to him a lot, but…"

Before Kama could finish the sentence, the doors to the room opened again, and two random inkling boys entered the lobby. The conversation between the inklings ceased, ending with a simple nod between the two. And after a small while, the teams were set: The three members of Tailslap and the octoling girl were obviously a full team, which led to Kama and Sal being grouped with the two low-level inklings. The stage was Piranha Pit, and their ink was turquoise colored.

Kama didn't know how to behave in that match. Tailslap was the number two team in Inkopolis, but they'd probably hold themselves back so they could fully support and make the octoling girl the star of the team. He hoped the two other guys on their team had gotten the message, otherwise…

Kama didn't have time to finish his sentence, as next thing he knew he was splatted by a rapidly moving blur. He climbed onto one of the platforms near the spawn point on his way back, and was amazed at the sight. The octoling girl was swimming around the whole map in just a few seconds, trying to ink every corner she could even though the range and mediocre fire range of the Octo Shot put her in a disadvantage. On the other side of the fight was Fen, who wielded the splatling with almost perfect accuracy and ink management. Kama and the Tailslap members looked at each other from opposite sides of the map, mouths wide open in amazement. In the end, each team would have painted exactly 50% of the match. However, Fen stopped shooting a millisecond earlier, which led to the purple team receiving the winning decimal.

Kama and Fen watched with small smiles on their face as the octoling girl cheered and hugged the Tailslap members. For Fen especially, it was a truly heartwarming sight. Besides the whole "promised land" incident, his migration to Inkopolis had been relatively peaceful and free of conflict. That little display of affection reminded him that, even though things were rough back at Octopolis, and even though some of the older inklings still harbored hate towards their kind, the octolings would now have a place to live under the sun like they once had. Peace, once such a distant and shallow concept, never looked so bright.

Kama, Fen, the octogirl and the Tailslap trio continued to play for the whole afternoon. They cycled through pretty much all of the maps available that month, used a little bit of each weapon class, and had a ton of fun. The two people on Kama and Fen's team alternated each time. Some of them were quiet, others talkative, but no one was really rude or annoying to them fortunately. Fen was especially glad about that, since he had read some news online about people being racist towards octolings during matches. The idea made him shiver a little - but he was certain his friends would protect him and use their popularity to report the aggressor if anything happened.

Kama was happy to see Fen enjoying himself so much. The once shy octoling was slowly warming up to him, and he was starting to become… Infatuated with everything he did. His movements were precise and smooth. Even though cephalopods were mostly the thin type, it was possible to notice how little issue Fen had to run around with the heavy splatlings. And his smile… _Oh my god_ , his smile. Every time he smiled, Kama wished he could frame it and put it above his fridge besides the pictures of him and Sal.

Sal… Sal wouldn't be very happy if he knew what Kama was thinking. Jealousy was a trait he usually reprehended Sal for, but this time… Due to the tricky situation involved in the befriending of the octoling, Kama felt like he had to take the responsibility of whatever "suspicious" behavior happened in between him and Fen.

He loved his boyfriend dearly – he really did! But he was slowly starting to get enamored at Fen's every characteristic. The calming sound of his voice, the way the main tentacle on his head was never fully colored (the tip would always remain some variant of red independent of the ink color chosen), how soft his lips felt, the deep blue of his eyes…

Wait, _lips_?

Kama's brain suddenly entered panic mode, trying to redo the last few minutes to detect what was currently happening and what events led to it.

The thirty last seconds of a turf war match. The two average members of their team had been taken out, leaving Kama and Fen alone to deal with the whole opponent team. Kama tried waving his splat roller around, but they were spinning around them like sharks ready to strike. The sound of barrels spinning echoed through the air, and three of them were gone. Lin, using her Splattershot Pro, started walking backwards while trying to splat the two. Kama took the opportunity to swim in zigzag towards her. Reaching an intersection, Lin took a little too much time to decide which way she was supposed to go, and suddenly the ink that shot out of Fen's splatling covered her. With nowhere else to go, she braced for the impact of Kama's splat roller hitting her square in the face and causing her body to burst into orange ink.

The timer rang. Judd and Lil Judd appeared on a screen above them, being held by drones. Lin's explosion had given them the final percent they needed to win the match. The boys cheered, they hugged, they smiled. They were so close to each other. They kissed.

"Ah, sorry about that!" Fen's voice was what led him back to the present. How much time they stayed with their lips glued together, or who started the act, he did not know. But it was like figurative spotlights were shining down onto the two. "That was a pretty intense match! I think I'm completely done for today, though, I'm starting to get too tired."

"It's fine! I'm gonna head home too, my back's starting to hurt a little." Kama didn't know how Fen could be so nonchalant about what had just happened, but it was rubbing off him as well.

The group was surprised to see there was a large group gathered in front of the main Deca Tower building. And in front of the crowd, Sal. Kama was happy to see him at first, but upon closer inspection, something was off. Sal's face was bright red just like the ink that ran through him. He had his hands clenched into fists. The tentacle that usually obscured his right eye was slicked back just enough so he could glare at the screen above his head with both eyes.

"Were you cheering for Tailslap? Geez, I know that girl was cute, but…"

Kama suddenly froze dead in his tracks as his eyes were redirected towards the same screen Sal was looking. A single picture, with the caption "Kiss cam!" under it, was all it took for the fear and panic to reinstall itself into his mind. Two boys, one inkling and one octoling, kissing passionately in the middle of the battlefield. Their eyes were closed, and what they experienced at that moment had most likely been pure bliss.

The exact opposite of what Sal felt when his head tilted back down and put Kama in his camp of vision. He took a step forward, then a step backwards. He opened his mouth, but nothing came out. Then he simply started powerwalking away from the crowd. Kama and the remainder of Tailslap ran after him. Lin grasped his arm with a fair amount of strength, forcing him to stop and turn backwards.

"Sal, look, I just… We weren't d–"

" _I don't want to talk to you_." Sal's words stung more than the pressurized blast of a stingray.

"Hey, calm down, don't stress over it. I saw what happened, he didn't mean to–"

"I don't want to talk to _you_ either, Lin. I don't want to talk to anybody." Sal pulled his hand out of her grip, almost causing her to lose her balance. And then he walked away. He didn't need to run. He knew no one would dare to follow him this time.

Kama's mind shut off. He couldn't cry. He couldn't scream. He couldn't do anything to make his boyfriend come back. That had been the second chance, and he ruined it and his entire relationship with Sal in a matter of seconds. Fen was probably worrying over it as well, thinking it was his fault. But none of the comforting words were being absorbed by him at the moment.

His body did all the work for him. As soon as he knew, he was back in his own home – his family home. And he had a plan. A plan that would most likely end in failure, but a plan he had to try nonetheless.

 _Something has to go wrong eventually_ , Sal always said.

And some things were broken before they even shattered.


	5. The Storm Before The Storm

Even though it was filled with a multitude of screens, food tables, spare uniforms and bright LED lights that served no purpose whatsoever, the backstage still felt particularly empty. There were four people there, but none of them seemed to be truly present in the moment. Tai and Nami, the twins who never really seemed to be excited for anything, were quieter than usual. Lin, the front-liner of the team, was alternating her focus between her phone and the timer for the beginning of the match with nervousness in her eyes. And Sal wanted nothing more than to disappear from the face of the Earth.

The events leading up to the match were… Suspicious, to say the least. It all began in the day prior when it was revealed that Nazu, the charismatic newly elected catfish president of Inkopolis, was going to be participating in the ranked matches committee again that year, and would start by managing the Tailslap vs Acrodolphins match. At eleven PM, he announced that the match was going to be postponed until further notice because one of the Acrodolphins members was involved in an undisclosed accident. At eleven thirty, he announced that the regulations were being "revised" for secret reasons, and that there would be more updates on the subject still that day. And at precisely eleven and fifty nine, the match was confirmed again without any further details. If Sal didn't know any better, he'd think this was all a plan from Nazu to make him have the most miserable time of his life. And he hated that it was actually working.

"Clam blitz in Piranha Pit." Tai finally broke the tense silence. She had her laptop on her lap, and was currently running over the multitude of notes she had taken along the years from past matches. "I'd suggest our standard comp. We can't try anything too risky, since… You know."

Nazu _had_ broken the regulations. It didn't take a genius to figure that out. He was known to interrupt games and bend rules in favor of "fun and fairness", and this seemed like the exact kind of thing he would have done. Even though the Acrodolphins' team uniform had a tinted helmet that protected and hid the face of the wearers, it was possible to see the jarring difference between Boto – the Acrodolphins player who had been injured – and whoever was currently pretending to be him. The body type simply did not match, and the play style…

Boto was a very aggressive player. He liked making risky moves, flanking at the most unexpected times to disrupt the other team's balance, and was generally the one who was prioritized in team fights due to the danger of leaving him unsupervised for too long. But his substitute was almost the opposite. For starters, they were playing as a backliner, just like Sal. They were also using a charger, which was definitely not a weapon for someone who likes action and movement. Nami was able to notice that there was a sort of boundary, an imaginary radius in the stages where the impostor would be at his full potential. He couldn't do anything outside of it, but if someone from Tailslap stepped into it without paying attention, they would be splatted in seconds.

"I think it's worth trying the Tenta Brella here. We could try to go for more aggressive pushes, and stay behind the brella once it deploys so we can get a head start on taking the charger out." Sal suggested. "Though in this case, we should probably replace the Splat Roller with the 85 for safekeeping."

It was supposed to be an easy task. They had studied the Acrodolphins for about a year in preparation. Every tactic they had, what each player lacked, what stages they usually avoided. And it did show for the first thirty seconds of the first game. Until Lin tried advancing into their backline at Walleye Warehouse to throw the power clam at their basket and found herself instantly splatted. The team still used most of their old strategies, but Boto completely shifted the dynamics of the team. Their old backliner was now a midliner, meaning all of their play styles had been altered ever so slightly to match the new member's play style.

Luckily, it was a best of five match. Not so luckily, they were tied and this last game of clam blitz would decide everything.

"That seems fair. Does everyone agree?" Nami asked, looking around the room. Everyone nodded, except for Lin who seemed to be focused on her phone rather than the conversation. "Lin?"

"Mhm." She muttered, looking at Nami for only a split second before turning her attention back to the device. Sal knew why she was like that. Everyone knew, but Sal was the one directly affected by it. Though they were all nice enough not to comment on the day prior, the complete lack of small talk in between strategy discussion made for a rather tense atmosphere.

Suddenly, the timer reached zero and an alarm sounded, meaning it was time for them to enter the battlefield. They all grabbed their weapons and put on their uniform goggles, walking through the exit door. Since Piranha Pit was located in a quarry, the door actually led to a tunnel carved out of solid rock that ended on a metal ladder. One short climbing session and a super jump later, they all landed at the spawn point – the machine emitting a _"ding!"_ sound to signal their bodies would reappear there in case they were splatted during the game.

There were no grandstands at the site, but dozens of camera drones flew around the air above the stage to capture the best angles of the match. It was being televised in almost all major channels, and being livestreamed by the most popular GooTubers and Splatnet celebrities. It was a big deal, being a fight for the title of #1 ranked team. After a particularly rough tournament for the Acrodolphins the year prior that led to Tailslap being raised to #2, the stakes for this match were set high. Independently of the winner, both teams would receive a large amount of money, but the winner got a sponsorship deal with Forge. Being a wearer of Forge gear themselves, this was the perfect opportunity for Tailslap to advance their career.

" **Ready?"**

The commentator's voice echoed through the quarry. Sal was definitely not ready, but he felt like there was no fixing that right now. No amount of strategy discussing and physical training would make him forget the scene from yesterday. He could tune them out during the action, but he'd have to deal with the situation _after_ it.

" **Go!"**

Like a well-oiled machine, everyone rushed out of the spawn point and took their positions on the map. Sal swam through the ink on the conveyor belt and took his spot behind the open space closest to his team, immediately taking down one of the Acrodolphins with his Rapid Blaster Pro. It looked like they had realized Tailslap were having difficulty with aggressive pushes, and decided to go all out with no hesitation. Not the smartest choice, since Tailslap was known for having one of the best defensive formations around, but they knew that "Boto" would still protect the basket for them no matter how recklessly they played.

From that point onwards, the game had become a battle of defenses. Ever so often Nami would try to lead a push with her Tenta Brella, but "Boto" would intercept it as soon as it disintegrated. The Acrodolphin strikers would try to attack from both sides of the map, but they were always quickly splatted by Sal and Nami. And Lin… Lin sure _was there_.

Sal didn't like to blame his teammates for defeats, but if they lost that game he would lay it down on her. She looked distracted the whole game, was jumpier than normal and her accuracy was practically nonexistent. The rest of the team had to work twice as hard to compensate for her clumsiness, and it was starting to show. Five-minute matches felt more like fifty-minute matches when one of your teammates had her head in the clouds.

It was almost like she was _taunting_ him. Either that, or she was involved in whatever had happened to the real Boto. But tinfoil hats don't protect against splash damage, so Sal didn't bother putting his on and continued to focus his mind in the game completely.

"Lin, watch out for Tentatek!" Sal shouted, rushing towards the left to deal with two other attackers. _Oh how foolish he had been_. He managed to splat the one using a Mini Splatling by outranging him, but the second one took the opportunity to sneak behind him and take him out with his Sploosh-O-Matic. As unorthodox as the weapon was, the opponent still managed to splat and get past Lin, and then throw the power clam into Tailslap's basket. Sal managed to deal with all oncoming attackers before they could throw any more clams, but the damage was already done. 0 to 20 in the Acrodolphins' favor.

Oh well, no time to be angry. After the official post-game interview, he would have a whole afternoon to do that. Maybe even discuss the future of his relationship with Kama afterwards, if his sanity and career were still intact.

" **Thirty seconds remaining!"**

The time warning that rang through the air only served to pump more adrenaline into the cephalopods' bodies. Lin had managed to splat someone for the first time in the game, and Tai followed soon after. Sal found the third attacker sneaking close to his zone shortly after, and after an intense battle only "Boto" remained.

"Nami, one more push! Throw me one!"

Nami threw a clam at Sal in response, walking to the middle of the stage and opening the Tenta Brella. Everyone gathered behind her and waited a few seconds before the umbrella part of the weapon took off. Sal's newly formed power clam signaled his position on the map, but there was no time to worry about that. Lin, Nami and Tai were splatted one by one, but not in vain. Sal managed to advance considerably before confronted by "Boto". He turned into a squid just in time for a line of ink to fly above where his head would be. He swam aside to through the path his team had inked, and shot his blaster right towards the imposter. It wasn't enough to splat him, but he had been accurate enough to blow his helmet away.

It all made sense now.

An octoling. A mostly shaved head with a main tentacle running down the front. Vivid blue eyes that were focused straight onto Sal's center of gravity. A golden ornament tucked on his left ear. A splat charger.

Both were taken by surprise by the sudden face reveal, but Fen managed to break out of his daze and splat Sal as the timer reached zero. Fortunately for Fen's eardrums, Sal's body burst right before he could let out a scream that would have been so loud it could have been classified as an industrial Killer Wail.

Sal was barely holding it together by the time he reached the backstage. He tossed his Rapid Blaster Pro into the wall, causing the parts to detach and break at impact. He also gave it a kick for good measure. After that noise was over, he could hear steps coming from the tunnel that led to the room. There was only one way to make this worse than it already was, and it ended up being exactly what happened. The thing he wanted to see the least at the moment was Kama and Fen walking through the door with big smiles on their faces.

"Nice game! What do you think of Fen? I kn–"

Whatever Kama was going to say was cut off immediately as Sal lunged towards him, stopping with their noses mere millimeters from each other.

" **You**. How… dare you!"

A shiver ran across Kama's (figurative) spine. He lacked words for a moment before gulping. "I j-just… Thought you wouldn't be mad at me if you saw how cool Fen was!"

Sal had to stop for a second. Did he really think he was _that_ stupid?

"This was the biggest game of my career. But you don't care about that, do you?" Kama started walking backwards, and Sal followed after him with his finger pointed at his throat. "All you care about are your… Dates and games and _kisses_. You never stop to consider how _I_ would feel about a situation before doing something, do you?"

Kama was paralyzed in fear. Sal didn't care in the slightest. "You couldn't simply… Break up with me and move on peacefully. Oh no, you had to take away **EVERYTHING** I HAVE!"

Sal had never shouted with him like that before. Kama was starting to physically tear up, large drops of blue running down his face. "S-Sal, I…"

"And _you_. You little…" Sal suddenly turned to face Fen, who was watching the whole thing with horror in his eyes. Sal really, really wanted to scream at the octoling. Maybe even get physical. He _deserved_ it. But somehow, he couldn't bring himself to be as angry towards Fen as he was with Kama. He knew that it was probably not his fault, and that he was probably a nice guy if they ever got to meet each other properly.

"You… Shouldn't be here." It was the best Sal could say. Not really an insult, but it still hurt Fen quite a lot. "There are rules against this! You can't just walk into the fucking committee a day before the match and have them ruin my life just like this! Nazu is involved in this, isn't he? I'm going to find the exact hotel he is at and–"

There was a sudden flash. Why was there a sudden flash? Sal turned to his right, only for his heart to drop. **He had forgotten about the post-game interview**. How he hadn't seen the dozens of cameras pointing right at him was a mystery, but they had caught everything. And made it worse. He watched wide as the TV in the corner copied his movements live, the headline changing from "Interview with Tailslap!" to "Xenophobia in the locker room?"

"No! Change this… Right now! That is not what's going on right now you…" Sal stepped in front of the cameras. What would he do, though? _Break them_? That would only make the whole situation worse. So instead, he took the only logical course of action in his mind: he unstrapped the ink tank from his back and ran towards the exit.

Fen debated whether or not to go after him, but instead decided to help Kama, who was currently curled into a ball and crying against the corner of the room. The cameras decided to stop broadcasting the poor inkling's sobs after a while out of respect, but millions had already seen the whole (out of context) situation. The damage had been done.

Thunder could be heard rumbling above the underground room as clouds started to form in the sky. Actual clouds, not the Ink Storms that had been present during the games. The rain, which usually soothed Kama, was now a grim reminder of his failure as a boyfriend and as a **friend**.


	6. It's Raining Somewhere Else

**A/N: There will be themes of suicide and death in this chapter, so thread with caution if you're not comfortable with that kind of stuff. Bumping the rating up because of that as well.**

* * *

" _It was bound to happen: first case of octoling discrimination on live TV"_

" _Team that hosted racist player loses sponsorships"_

" _Infamous discriminatory inkling loses battling privileges for life"_

The headlines just kept getting worse and worse. Kama couldn't bear to look at them any longer, but he felt like he had to. Every time his finger grazed against the lock button on his phone, he faltered and continued browsing the news. Fen's soft hand touching his shoulder was what broke him out of the self-induced mental torture, but it did little to soothe his current mood. Wherever Sal was, he was probably feeling the same. But Kama's heart tightened, as he knew the boy didn't have anyone to lift up his spirits. Mainly because all of his friends and acquaintances were there with him at Pearl's mansion.

Off the Hook, the Squid Sisters, Captain Cuttlefish, the remaining members of Tailslap and an indefinitely large number of servants were gathered in the enormous living room. They were scattered across the mostly empty space, with Kama and Fen sitting down by a corner with their phones on their hands. Even though there were at least ten people in the room, they couldn't help but feel… Distant from each other. Isolated. Empty. _He_ was missing.

Besides some shaky and cryptid sighting-like footage that a spectator of the event had taken, nobody knew where Sal had gone after that match. Even with the idols' extensive influence, they still couldn't find the inkling. His phone had been left at the Piranha Pit backstage along with his casual clothes and his agent communicator was on Tentakeel Outpost, so there was no way of tracking him. Even Marina's apparent knowledge of how to hack public security cameras was useless in this situation, since he was probably somewhere indoors or at least in private property. They had to rely on the police force, which was probably going to be at least a little hostile to Sal since he pretty much committed a discrimination crime.

And the press. There were at least two dozens, if not more reporters and journalists in front of Pearl's mansion. It seemed like not even heavy rain could deter those people from getting the latest news on the current trending topic of Inkopolis. They wanted to get an interview with Fen – the "victim" – to ask him questions they didn't really want answers for, shower him with fake sympathy, and further Nazu's shallow octoling integration project. Fen didn't hate the mainstream media as much as Sal and the idols did. Rather, he was avoiding it simply because he felt like he wasn't ready to answer those questions. He saw how quickly Sal's career went down by making one mistake on live TV, and he didn't want to destroy the boy's life even further by accidentally stumbling with his words or being manipulated into specific answers by hungry show hosts.

"Kama. You don't need to do this to yourself." Fen's voice was calming, but had a careful tone to it. He was as uncertain about the situation as Kama was. He was only sure that whatever thoughts were going on in the inkling's mind weren't so uplifting, and he wanted to cheer him up somehow.

"I just… Want to be able to do something." Kama sighed and locked his phone, putting it face down on the ground. "But I've probably done too much already. Telling Lin about the plan to put you in the other team was… The worst choice I've ever made. Actually, the plan was the worst choice I've ever made. I should have just… Talked to him after the tournament. Peacefully, like he said."

Fen looked away for a moment. He had something he wanted to say, but he didn't want to put even more strain on Kama's consciousness. However, after a painfully long minute, he couldn't contain himself anymore.

"Do you… Don't you think this is all my fault? I was the one who kissed you, after all."

Kama turned to face him. "What? No no, it's… I would have pushed you away if I didn't like it. I just…"

Kama let out another sigh, redirecting his gaze towards the ground. Damn it, now he was the one getting filled with questions. This couldn't get any more awkward… But he was going to make it so.

"…Did you mean it?" Kama stared at Fen's surprised expression with the best neutral expression he could muster, blue inky blood spreading across his cheeks. "The kiss. Did you mean it?"

"Um… Yes? I don't know…" Fen shrugged slightly. "I just… Felt like it was the right thing to do. I do… Like you a lot, but I'm not… Not sure if…"

Oh hell. He did mean it. As if this tangled polygon of misunderstandings and misfortunes needed another side to it.

"Did _you_ mean it?"

"Yes." Kama answered almost immediately. "I mean… It was kinda sudden and all, but… I meant it. I've been… Kinda excited about this whole "enemies to friends" thing we had going on and… I don't know, I guess it turned romantic all of a sudden? I don't know when I started to see you like that, but… Sal has been kind of busy lately, and I guess I just needed a way to keep the loneliness away while he did his own stuff, and… I ended up kissing back."

Fen slowly nodded, cracking a small smile. "It's fine. Down there in Octopolis we… Rarely had time for friendships. Other people were either always teammates or competitors, so we couldn't really form any meaningful relationships. Spending so much time with you has been… Refreshing. It's making me feel things they made us think we'd never feel. I guess I just… Took into the first opportunity I had to get really close to someone."

Kama couldn't put himself in Fen's place, but he could at least sympathize with the octoling. "I get where you're coming from. After moving from Calamari County to Inkopolis I kinda just… Lost all the connections I had. So when I met Sal I kinda just super jumped into things. Luckily he didn't mind, and we've been dating for almost two years now. I wonder if we still are…"

Kama paused, looking down at his phone. He pressed the button, sighing at his lock screen. It was a picture of the two of them watching the new years' fireworks show, taken secretly by Kama's mother. The two of them were wearing traditional festival kimonos, which Kama thought were boring but Sal seemed to enjoy quite a lot – probably something he'd borrowed from Marie. He could swear he saw Sal smiling that night, even if his memory of that day was a bit hazy from all the eating he had done. Sal never smiled, so why would he do so at that moment? But… He just felt like it was something that happened. He might not remember the sight, but he definitely remembered the warmth of the moment.

"Do you… Think I'm a bad boyfriend? For letting all of this happen?" Kama asked after a while, looking back up at Fen's face. "I've made a lot of mistakes and… Well, developed a crush on you _that_ quickly. I don't… Think that's how a good boyfriend is supposed to act… Or to feel."

"I… Think you did made some mistakes along the way." Fen tried to be careful with his words. "But we all do, right? And Sal… Well, didn't really speak with him a lot… But I can tell he still likes you. He said… Well, shouted a lot of things when he was angry, but I felt like he wasn't ready to let go of you just yet. I think he still has hope that you like him back."

"Huh? Really?" Kama blinked. "How do you know? Did you learn to interpret this kind of stuff in your advanced reconnaissance class?"

"No, I've just always been very observant with this kind of stuff." Fen chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck. "Octolings can't usually directly say what they want to when in public, so you have to learn to write and read between the lines."

"Ah, I see." Kama chuckled back, glad the tension was slowly starting to get lifted. "Do you think we can manage to get this… Thing to work when Sal comes back? The three of us?"

Fen pondered, raising a hand to his chin. "I… think it's a little too soon to tell. And I don't know how he feels about me, and the whole polygamy thing in general since I don't know how common it is with inklings. But… I'm willing to give it a try. It's fine if it doesn't work out, I… Just want us to continue being friends."

Kama simply grinned, not really sure how to respond but at the same time feeling like he didn't need to. On the distance, a certain idol rolled her eyes and got up from her chair, waltzing towards the door.

"Ugh, I can't watch this anymore. I'm going to get lactose intolerance if I stay here any longer, you guys are so cheesy."

All the conversations suddenly stopped. Everyone turned to look at Marie making her way out, but Callie acted fast enough and grabbed a handful of her traditional kimono to make her stop even if just for a moment.

"Hey, where do you think you're going? It's like, almost midnight at this point!"

"I need a walk to clear my mind." Marie replied nonchalantly.

"Well, it's raining cats and dogs outside, you can't just walk out like that!" Callie found it funny how that idiom had persisted even with the extinction of dogs. Nobody really knew where it came from, but it was rumored to be of human origin.

"Oh, I can." Marie reached out for the umbrella rack next to the door, taking out hers. It had similar a similar pattern to her traditional parasol, but it obviously wasn't made of oil-paper. "Technology sure is amazing, isn't it?"

Callie rolled her eyes and let out a loud huff. "Ugh, I guess there's just no stopping you when you have your mind set onto something. Just be careful. And…"

She paused, walking towards her cousin and whispering in her ear. Her previously sassy tone of voice had been replaced by a concerned one. "Look, I've known you for my entire life and I'm sure you're just using this as an excuse to go look for agent 4. Just… Don't push yourself too much, alright? We all appreciate your help, but you have to understand that it's kinda unlikely that you'll find him since there's already professionals working on it. I don't want to discourage you, I… Just want you to know that it's alright if you're not able to find him."

Marie pursed her lips and nodded. She looked at the other people in the room – who were currently starring at the two cousins – and decided to say something to try and lower suspicion. "Gross, Callie. I don't want to hear about what you pretend to do with Pearl and Marina now that I won't be here to hold you back."

"T-that was supposed to be kept private, that's why I whispered!" Callie's stomping on the ground was an exaggeration to make the whole thing seem more believable, but the purple blush quickly consuming her face was pretty genuine. "Go away already, geez! And keep your mouth shut when you return!"

Marie waved and headed out of the door, opening her umbrella shortly after. The rain had been ever so slowly weakening, but it was still possible to feel the large raindrops hitting against her umbrella, trying to find a way to reach Marie but with no success. The folds of her kimono were starting to get soaked, and she flinched every time they lightly smacked her legs as she walked. Fortunately, she was wearing proper boots instead of the traditional sandals that usually completed the outfit, or else her feet would have been dissolved at the first puddle.

Because of the rain, the streets of Inkopolis were almost completely empty. The sight greatly resembled one of the abandoned human city ruins scattered across the globe, except with less skeletons and odd metal apparatuses. It made Marie's personal investigation a lot easier, since she didn't have to worry about fans recognizing her and tackling her in search of autographs. Although the umbrella limited her vertical field of view, she didn't have to look to know exactly what her next destination was.

Deca Tower wasn't open to the public on rainy days. After all, at least half of the stages had nothing to protect the players from the rain, so the administration decided to suspend the games all together when the weather wasn't favorable. There were a few exceptions, though, and luckily Marie was one of them.

" _Access granted. Welcome inside,_ _ **MARIE CUTTLEFISH**_ _."_ A robotic voice said before the doors to the building where opened. Marie put her turf war card back into her pocket and walked inside, the doors closing after she did.

She stared at the panel with all the floor options. Squinting, she closed her eyes and ran her fingers over the buttons before randomly pushing one of them. _"WARNING: we have detected that your chosen destination,_ _ **ROOF**_ _, is unprotected against the elements. Press the button again if you wish to proceed anyways, but be warned that the resulting events are not covered by Deca Corporation's insurance policy."_

"Here goes nothing." She pressed the button again, and a set of doors opened at the end of the main lobby. Unlike the modern matchmaking rooms, this one was a simple elevator. Marie stepped inside and pressed the button to make the doors close before the elevator started to slowly ascend. It made a bit of noise, since the tech was older compared to the rest of the tower, but the whole building was kept under strict safety regulations so nothing bad happened to Marie in there.

After a minute or two, the elevator doors opened again, leading to an empty room with a reinforced steel door at the opposite side. Even though the rain was only moderately strong now, the sound of it hitting the ceiling was almost loud enough to drown out her steps. She made her way to the door and opened her umbrella before stepping out.

Marie didn't have a fear of heights, but her legs still wobbled as she noticed just how distant she currently was from the ground. Shaking her head to snap out of her trance, she looked around. Fortunately (or not), she didn't take long to find what they were all looking for.

Like most inklings, she had been taught of the three-minute rule as a kid. Water reacted in interesting ways with Inklings and Octolings. Total submersion was instantly fatal, and they had to mix all sorts of chemicals into the water to even make baths a thing. Ingesting water, on the other hand, was totally safe. Pretty much all animals on Earth still needed water to survive – and all that ink fluid had to come from somewhere anyways.

But rain was different. Unlike ink storms, they didn't prove to be immediately deadly. The maximum amount of time someone could stand under the water was three minutes, hence the name of the rule. At one minute, it stung. At two, the pain became numbness and the skin started to swell. At three, the ink from one's body would start leaking out of the skin. After three minutes had passed, the exposed body parts would start to rapidly liquefy and fall off in a gruesome way.

If she had to make a guess, Marie would say that Sal was two and a half minutes in.

"Funny seeing you here. You're not supposed to have administrator privileges. Did you super jump all the way over here without being detected? That's honestly impressive." Marie walked towards Sal, covering him with the umbrella as well.

Sal didn't speak or move. He was sitting next to the corner of the roof, hands gripping the guard rails – which were more like guard walls, since they were completely solid as to prevent anyone from accidentally falling off the building if they got too close to them in squid form. His gaze was fixed in an unknown point on the wall, but Marie could feel that he wasn't really looking at anything. He wasn't wearing the Tailslap uniform anymore, but instead a tank top and boxer shorts that he always wore underneath it.

"You're lucky I hit the right button on the first try, otherwise your boyfriend would be pretty mad at me."

"I don't have a boyfriend anymore." Sal spoke after a while, his voice as empty as his current state of mind. "I don't have anything."

"You have me." Marie twirled the umbrella around while she carefully thought about her words. "It's not much, but it's something you can hold onto while we get the rest of your stuff back."

Sal remained quiet.

"I never thought I'd have to see you like this again." Marie finally let out, sitting besides the other. The soaked floor made her backside ache a bit, but she knew she wouldn't be seriously injured from that. "It's been… What, four years? Since you promised me I wouldn't have to worry about you anymore."

"…"

"But that's fine. I've also broken my fair share of promises during these four years. Nobody's perfect, and that's okay. We just have to try a little harder every day so we grow into better people."

Sal turned to face Marie, raising an eyebrow.

"Gramps told me that one, yeah. Not something I'd usually say to one of my fans, but I feel like you're gonna take more out of this than the usual idol fantasy speech they make us say." Marie shrugged. She didn't know whether Sal was starting to cry or if the extra moisture was just being pushed out of his body, but she guessed it was a mixture of both.

"I'm… Sorry for making you come all the way here." Sal coughed, mostly as an excuse for his shaky voice. "I'm not even good at choosing a place to die by myself, am I? That's depressing."

"You picked up somewhere with a pretty good view of Inkopolis, though. But you're not going to be able to see anything if you stay down like that. Literally."

Marie slowly got up and offered her hand to Sal. He stared at it, looked away, but after what felt like an eternity he finally took it and got up as well. Marie was right, it was an absolutely gorgeous view now that Sal was actually focused on looking at it. The sea of concrete would be a bland view by itself, but all the stylized colorful buildings and the excessive illumination combined with the dimming sky made the city glow. Marie could see Pearl's absolutely massive mansion in the horizon, but she avoided looking directly at it. Maybe Callie and the others could see them up there now, but she trusted her cousin enough to know that she wouldn't disclose their location unless asked to.

"I can't do this alone." Marie was surprised to see Sal speaking up like that, but she was glad he was slowly recovering from the events on the day prior. "I… I did a lot of things wrong. Reacted in a way I shouldn't have just because I was jealous. And Instead of trying to immediately redeem myself, I tried the cheapest and most horrible path to escape my fate. I know you're a busy person, and that I can't be babysat by you forever. But… I really need help with this. I want to become a better person. For Kama… And even Fen, eventually. I want to change."

He paused. "Though it's not something I can do alone, not right now at least. I need someone to guide me, Marie. I need help fixing my life, finding something that's worth living for now that all my past options have been erased. Can you help me, Marie?"

Marie didn't answer vocally. She simply cracked a small smile and closed her eyes. The sound of the rain stopping answered him better than she ever could.

* * *

 **A/N: I probably won't be able to explore the beginning of Kama and Sal's relationship in this fic, but I'm starting to get ideas for a prequel fic! Would you guys be interested in that?**


	7. Marie Commits War Crimes

**_A/N: Warning again, this time for self harm._**

* * *

 _Now that was just_ _ **great**_ _._

 _Marie really liked her grandfather. She really did! Although often oblivious and sometimes a little bit close-minded, he was a great man with many stories to tell. He had done so much for Inkopolis in the past, and wanted to continue doing so with his New Squidbeak Splatoon project, which she didn't hesitate before agreeing to join. She had been a ranked fanatic long before her career shifted to the art industry, so fighting off hordes of Octarian soldiers was but a simple task for her. Callie had to take the lead, since Marie wouldn't be able to survive in the front lines for long no matter how good she was with chargers. Together however, the cousins managed to overcome all the challenges that were given to them without any difficulty, and nothing was out of their comfort zone._

 _Except this._

 _Cuttlefish was usually the one who "guarded" the entrance to the Octo Valley at all times, but surprisingly, the old man had gone on a mission of his own this time. It was amazing to Marie that, despite being barely able to walk without a cane, the old man still knew his way around with rollers. He might not have the best speed anymore, but his positioning and spacing were always on point. He was very old indeed, but he had a communicator with him in case there was an emergency – or if he wanted to ask how Marie was doing for the twentieth time that night._

 _Callie would be busy with meetings with possible sponsors, which Marie was grateful for because she had no patience for business talk. And so, she was left with the most boring job there was: watching the manhole._

 _It was simple: just keep looking at the thing until someone passed through it. If someone ever came, she would try to recruit them as an agent for the New Squidbeak Splatoon. If they accepted, they could begin right away and she'd be able to take a nap at Cuttlefish's shack. If not… Well, Cuttlefish never told her what to do in that case. But she assumed it was safe to just let them go away. It wasn't a secret project, just not a very public one. If anything, the larger influx of people coming to the valley could bring even more future agents!_

 _But… There was no one there. At most, pieces of plastic and other assorted trash were what came out of the manhole exit due to people littering in Inkopolis. Marie stopped caring after a whole hamburger somehow shot out of the opening. Not like anything could surprise her anymore after twelve cups of coffee. Hours and hours passed with nothing happening, and she was really starting to lose hope that there would ever be more than two agents in that sad little excuse for a Splatoon._

 _Until_ _ **he**_ _came._

" _Hm… The Octarians… Hey–"_

 _Marie was fairly unimpressed at first glance. It was a young inkling, 14 years old at most. His "hairstyle" was one that was more popular in the Inkopolis Square than the plaza, a tentacle covering the right side of his face and two more tied in a small bun behind his head. Marie couldn't immediately recognize the brand of his clothes – mainly because they looked like they weren't manufactured in Inkopolis._

 _But, as she looked closer at him, her gut slowly began to fill with a sense of dread. His arms were littered with cuts and bruises. His eyes were swollen, red and still watering. It also looked like he had bitten his lip several times, due to pierce marks on them._

 _Both of them just stared at each other for a while, before the boy made a 180 turn and started running back. It was until he skipped over the Octo Valley entrance pipe that she realized just what he was going to do. Marie's instincts acted faster than her mind, and her legs and arms worked in perfect unconscious harmony so that she pulled the boy back just as he was about to fall off the edge into the abyss below._

" _Hey, just what were you thinking?!" Marie huffed, practically wrestling the younger inkling. He had tried to turn into a squid as a last resort, but that proved to be his worst move as now she had him wrapped up in his arms and unable to escape or transform back. "You could have seriously hurt yourself!"_

 _The squid didn't answer, but instead began to cry. Marie was panicking internally. She had never had to deal with that before. Sure, she had comforted Callie when they were kids, but Callie didn't usually try to jump off the top of a building before crying. This was a serious situation that called for serious and well thought responses._

" _Do you want to fight the Octarians together with me and my cousin?" That wasn't one of them._

" _No…" He sobbed, closing his eyes. "Please let me go, miss…"_

" _No, you're not going anywhere near the edge. You're under my supervision whether you like it or not." Marie got up with him still in her arms and started walking towards the shack. She then sat down in one of the chairs and looked down. "What's your name?"_

" _Sal…"_

" _Sal? I like it. It's charming and easy to remember." Marie hummed. "I'm Marie. You know, from the Squid Sisters."_

 _Marie couldn't help but frown at his lack of reaction. "Nothing? Never heard of the Squid Sisters before? Geez, you must have been living in hell this whole time."_

 _Another sob. Oh. Maybe_ _ **that's**_ _what happened. She would have to ask for the details when he was feeling better. Or let Cuttlefish do it, he was great with kids. Well… Sal wasn't a kid, but Marie considered anyone younger than her one. The old man would be able to help either way._

" _Can you promise me something, Sal?" Marie let out after some minutes of silence. "I want you to promise me that you'll never try that again, no matter how ugly things are."_

" _I can't promise that…" Sal sighed._

" _Well, that's not an answer I'm going to accept. You're going to promise me that no matter how long I have to hold you. Someone out there really likes you, you know? Even if you haven't met them yet, they'd still be upset if you were gone. I'd be upset if you were gone… And not because this is kind of my responsibility now."_

 _Sal remained in silence. Marie couldn't tell whether or not he was having a change of mind, but she could see it in his eyes that something inside of him was changing. All of a sudden, Marie started squeezing him tightly. It felt warm and comforting at first, but then she kept on increasing the pressure more and more until…_

Sal started coughing as soon as he woke up, squirming and shifting on the bed. Before he opened his eyes, he could feel some of the pressure being relieved as well as hear hard objects hitting the ground. Opening his eyes, he was quite surprised to find that Marie was standing right besides the bed, and that it wasn't his bed.

"Oh, there you go." She let out a sigh, placing a finger on her cheek. "I spent thirty minutes trying to wake you up, then I got bored and started stacking Callie's Y.A. books on you. Ten is the magic number, I guess."

Wow. Way to ruin such a heartfelt dream and half accurate memory. Sal huffed and got up, pleased to find that he was now wearing pants, and unfortunately not wearing glasses. He tried recalling what had happened the night prior after Marie had found him, but his brain was still half asleep so he only recalled foggy images.

"Gramps kindly showed up and put some of his old clothes on you. I'm surprised they haven't disintegrated into a cloud of dust yet. Just try not to move a lot before we get you clothes less than a century old, I guess."

"W…Why… here?" Sal rubbed his still tired eyes, trying his best to mutter coherent sentences. "Apartment keys were with me. Don't wanna bother you."

"Well… No nice way of saying this. Someone posted your address online and now people are crowding your apartment so they can beat you up or something." Marie shrugged, turning her back to him and heading towards the living room. "You shouldn't really leave or even stand near any windows for a while. Also, I made some coffee."

"Ok." Sal simply nodded and followed after her, taking a seat by the wooden table and pouring himself a cup of coffee. Then another. Then another. It took five cups before he completely woke up and realized the situation he was in.

"Wait. What am I supposed to do? Do Kama and Fen know where I am? Are they coming?" Sal suddenly jolted up and searched for Marie in the living room, but couldn't find her. Her voice could be heard coming from one of the other rooms in the apartment.

"Don't worry, we're already sorting things out for you. We're scheduling you a public apology on TV where you'll be able to explain to people what really happened and all that. Pretty serious stuff, so you better start writing your speech already so you don't say something you don't mean in live television. As for the other agents, they know you're here, but I said it was better to let you rest for a while before talking to them."

Oh… Okay. Everything was _that_ easy when you were ultra rich and famous. Sal sat back down by the table, this time taking a seat next to one of the windows. It was only possible to see the sea of buildings that was Coral Complex, as well as the side of some busy street. People going on with their lives as usual… Sal pursed his lips, turning away from the window. Did… Did everyone in Inkopolis suddenly hate him now? It sure would be a bit exaggerated if they did, Inkopolis was no small city and everyone had different opinions and views. But, to go as far as finding out where he lived… He must have really messed up.

Now what?

"So… You're just going to keep me here? What if I want to leave?"

"The keys are on the table. I'm not the one keeping you here, common sense is. Or at least should be." Marie sounded slightly worried, which contrasted with her usual sarcastic and casual nature. "There are basically two options. Either you stay in here until next week, or… Well, agents usually do undercover missions, right?"

Shortly after saying that, Marie walked back in the living room, pushing some plates and cups out of the way so she could put a big box on top of the table. She had changed out of her kimono, now wearing her classic (old) Squid Sisters outfit – as well as a medical mask and some rubber gloves. She opened the box and started taking out some objects: a multitude of small bottles containing chemical substances unknown to Sal, a set of medical tools including syringes and scalpels, contact lenses of all colors and a red bow.

"This is the part where I tie you to the chair and start experimenting on you." Marie raised her hands besides her head, shaking them as if she was a zombie. It kind of looked like the Off the Hook hand gesture. "I'm kidding. But it's probably gonna feel weird since I haven't done this in ages."

"Wait, you're not…" Sal took a step back, gulping. "There are… Professional tentacle salons that… No offense, would probably do this way better than you can."

"None that would agree to do it on _you_ specifically, at least not right now." Marie shrugged. That kinda stung Sal, but she was right. "The choice is yours, really. Depends on if you feel like cross-dressing for a week or not. I'm just here to help and make sure nobody starts throwing rocks at my apartment if you walk too close to the window."

"Something tells me you're not going to accept a no."

"Up to you. I just feel like it's the best option since it covers both of our needs," Marie smirked, "you need to go out there and I need to see you in girl clothes."

"Marie, I'm home! Brought the stuff you asked and some food for you two!"

Callie chimed from behind the door, searching into her pocket for her keys. Unlike Marie, she had been unable to continue her music career after the Squid Sister's two year split because… Well, Octavio happened. Callie did most of the recordings for their new album Fresh Start alone, since Marie had already started on it way before Callie was even kidnapped. It always felt a bit off not to have her cousin by her side while singing, but hopefully this would only last until they were done taking care of Sal.

Speaking of Sal, is that his voice that's screaming right now? They did ask for the best soundproofing they could afford when adapting the apartment for their needs, so it was a big surprise to even hear anything coming from the inside. Callie waited until the screams paused before opening the door and quickly locking it behind her. It took only 0.2 seconds after she had done that for her eardrums to be almost blown out by the screaming. She pressed her tentacles against her ears, dropped her bags onto the table and hushed to the bathroom – the apparent source of the noise.

"Hey! Sal, is everything alright in there?!" She knocked on the door violently, trying to make her presence known despite the impossibly loud noise.

"Oh, hey Callie! Yeah, it's all good, I'm just doing Sal's tentacles. Just like old times, remember?" Marie shouted back from the other side of the door.

Oh, that was it. A shiver went through Callie's body as she immediately remembered the sensation. Yeah, maybe he deserved to be screaming that loudly. With a sigh, she walked towards her and Marie's bedroom and took out her old headphones, connecting them to her phone and blasting Off the Hook songs as loud as the machine allowed – which was still not loud enough apparently.

After some times, the intervals between the screaming increased, and completely stopped after ten minutes or so. Callie took notice of this and pulled one of the headphones in time to hear the bathroom door being opened.

"Can… Can I look yet?" Callie gulped. She wondered if Marie had gotten better after all those years. Or if Sal was even alive anymore.

"Hm… Yeah, I think it's okay. It's my best job so far, actually, you **have** to see this right now."

Callie hesitated. She took a deep breath and peeked her head out of the doorframe, gasping as she saw what had been done to Sal.

It was… Almost perfect! His tentacles were now arranged in a shorter style, with two appendages on each side of his face reaching down to his cheeks. The forehead area was flat and angular, almost resembling (human) bangs in a way. The back had four other short appendages that almost reached his nape. There was also a bandage on the top of his head. He was currently clutching his stomach and gritting his teeth.

"Woah, it sure is! You only messed up once!" Callie laughed, not seeing to get any reaction out of Marie whatsoever. That was good! "How are you feeling, Sal?"

"Like all the fluid in my body has been replaced with liquid plastic. An ancient vessel that has lost all of its value upon a failed restoration. The proof that we as a species should not play God."

"Eh, it's just the anesthetic." Marie shrugged, removing her ink covered gloves and mask and throwing them into the trash can. "Callie said worse before."

"Huh? Why was he screaming if you used anesthetic?" Callie raised an eyebrow.

"I told him his tentacles were never going to grow back and he was so high he actually believed. I dunno why he continued screaming after they grew back, though." Another shrug. "Not my responsibility anymore, gotta go to the recording studio. It's your turn to take care of the baby now."

Marie went to her room to change into her new outfit. Callie grabbed Sal by the arm and placed him on the couch, making sure he didn't put too much pressure onto the bandaged area. She then walked towards the table, taking out a small black laptop and placing it on Sal's lap. It had a few band stickers on the back and near the keyboard, and the painting on the keys was mostly worn out.

"Ta-da! We couldn't really get into your apartment just yet, but Kama had one of your older laptop."

"Cursed relic." Sal muttered. "Careful."

"Yeah yeah, whatever." Callie's ever-present smile was starting to exhibit a bit of worry on it. Not like Sal was conscious enough to notice it anyways. "I've disabled the internet access so you don't post bad stuff online while you're under the effect of the anesthetics."

"You place too little faith in me. I'm totally fine." Sal moved a shaky hand to open the laptop, turning it on. It was old, so it took a good ten minutes before it was good enough to be used. Sal then turned to face Callie. "I don't need help using computer. Also there's some naked pictures of Kama in here so go away."

Callie didn't need to hear anything else from him. With an awkward wave, she turned around and headed to her room. Was Sal telling the truth, or was that just the best excuse that his anesthetic fueled mind could come up with? There was no way to tell at the moment, and she honestly didn't really want to know. Marie came out of the room a while later, said goodbye to both of them and left.

Sal quickly found out that an old computer without internet access was basically an empty computer. Playing Super Pinball 3D was only entertaining for so much time after all. After a few minutes of mindlessly scrolling through the games list – which only had three games – he decided to revisit some of his old files. They weren't many, most of them had been consciously erased by Sal due to the bad memories attached to them, but some remained.

Sal was especially pleased to find that the music folder was still intact! It brought him fuzzy yet good memories of the first months of their relationship. Besides modelling, Kama was also trying to get into composing, so he'd send Sal small clips and unfinished songs to get his opinion on them. Who could forget such classics as "what I think a trash compactor sounds like", "frog orchestra but they only know how to scream", and even Sal's favorite song ever, "I'm very angry and I love drums"? He felt like remembering Kama of them, he reached out the inside of his pocket, only to remember that those pants weren't his and that he had left his phone at the backstage in Piranha Pit.

Also he felt really angry at Kama for some reason. But in his current state, he couldn't remember why that was. His brain, at the lack of information, decided to make up some backstory for him: He was mad because Kama had called him a bad composer. That sounded like a perfectly valid explanation at the time.

"I'll… Fucking show him who's the bad composer. He'll fucking see." Sal slurred to no one in particular. Opening his trusty old friend, Inky Tracker, he was prepared to make symphonies. _Was_ , because his mind finally went blank and illogical as soon as he hit the create track button.

His body continued working, though.


	8. The Best Of Both Worlds

"Okay, if you just exhale the air like this, you can… Sal? Sal! Are you listening?"

Sal slowly opened his eyes again, squinting at the blurry figure of Callie lecturing him on god knows what – or at least someone that sounded like her. He was about to change his whole identity for a week, so one could never be too sure. There would be no reason for someone impersonating as Callie to break into her and Marie's apartment and start practicing voice pitch changing exercises with him.

"Wasn't before. I think I just woke up now," Sal yawned, stretching his arms above his head, "and this time for real. I know I've said this like three times in a row."

Callie sighed. "Good, good. Now pay attention, this is really important if you don't want to be recognized! I'm not even sure if this is something we can do in just one day, but oh well…"

"Yeah, I was going to ask about that. Isn't there like, a pill or another probably expired chemical in Marie's collection that can make my voice higher for a while?" Sal got up – glad that the laptop had been removed off his lap, otherwise it would have fallen – and headed to the living room table to pour himself another cup of coffee. It wasn't hot anymore, but that was nothing the good old microwave oven couldn't fix.

"Well, there is, but… I kinda just wanted to feel like I was helping with something too. Marie always gets all the fun when it comes to doing stuff with you." Callie frowned, looking away from Sal. "Sorry about that…"

Sal took a seat by the table after his cup of coffee was ready, finding that the laptop had been there the whole time and turning it on, scrolling through the files while enjoying his beverage. What was he doing some hours ago again? The internet was disabled, so he couldn't have ruined his public image even more. Something with… Music, was it? Ah, that was right, he was about to make some before he (supposedly) passed out. Sure enough, there were three more files in the music folder: "frog_in_the_trash_ ", "smog_will_eat_our_ " and "*******_pebble_in_my_boot". There was also an inky tracker project file named "puzzle_ ". The melody was at least 70% complete, but some notes and background instruments were missing from it – _probably because I fell asleep in the middle of composing_ , Sal thought.

"I understand, though I'd prefer the easy way. Also, there's something I actually need help with. Listen to these with me." Sal pulled another chair from under the table, dragging it besides his. Callie happily took the offer and sat down by the table as well.

The songs were… Not what either of them were expecting. The first one, like the name implied, combined the squeaky (frog) sound effects with harsh industrial noises, that together made a rather strange but somewhat upbeat tune. The second was… Almost indescribable, but it did capture the feeling of working at Grizzco really well: dirty and unrewarding. And the final one was, simply, angry sounding. Various types of synth and drums layered together with the sole intent of stirring primal rage inside anyone who listened.

"Well…" Callie looked around the room, trying to find the right words. "They're… Interesting? It's just… Very different from what I'm used to listening to. Kinda sounds like they'd fit in a video game though! You know, those artsy RPGs where you walk around as an inkling trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic world?"

"That's oddly specific, but I get you." Sal took a sip of his coffee. "Guess this is going to be my career if things go wrong."

"Wait, you made them? I'd have been much nicer if I knew, I'm sorry!" Callie bowed her head slightly.

"I thought you had read the "IT'S SAL PLEASE DON'T FREEZE THIS TIME" under the artist name. But it's fine either way." Strange. For someone who used to be constantly bickering Marie in a TV show, Callie was awfully apologetic. Was that a stage persona, or did her behavior change due to her kidnapping? "You can try helping me with finishing the other track. You know, since you work in the music industry and all that, you probably know how this stuff works better than I do."

"I can do that!" Callie beamed, though it devolved into an embarrassed smile as Sal opened Inky Tracker. "Or… Not, heheh. Marie is the one who takes care of the technical side of things. I'm the lyricist though, I think I can come up with something that fits what you've got done already!"

"Okay, I'm going to save what I have now in a .frsh file and send it to you through your business email." Sal nodded, taking the last sip and putting his cup down. "I'll wash this later too, don't worry."

"Alright! I'll go to my room so I can get fully immersed on it!" Callie got up from the chair, beaming.

"Just get me the voice changing thing first, please."

"Ah, that's right!" Callie rushed out of the living room and into the same room Marie got the tentacle styling equipment from. After some minutes, she came back with a small opaque bottle. She didn't bother explaining to Sal anything about it, just carelessly tossing it in his general direction and running to her room to start making some lyrics.

Sal fortunately caught them before they could hit the laptop screen. The front had the official chemistry name – which Sal couldn't even try to attempt to read – while the back had the information he was looking for.

"Use only one per day; effects may appear in up to an hour after ingesting; lasts 12 hours." Sal read out loud. "Side effects may include: sore throat, breathing issues, permanent vocal change and… Death. Water is recommended. The usual."

Sal finished sending Callie the music file and got up. He picked up his coffee cup and walked towards the sink, although flinching and stepping back as soon as he opened the faucet.

 **Water**. His body was still recovering, and so was his mind. But that was safe water, right? Inklings could ingest any type of (potable) water with no issue, but only specially treated water could safely touch their skin without causing damage. Sal opened the faucet again and ever so slowly put his finger under it, confirming it was in fact safe water. Wouldn't make sense for apartments in Coral Complex of all places not to have safe water, but he had to make sure.

He then washed the coffee cup and filled it with water from the faucet, going back to the table. Opening the bottle Callie had given him, he took out a pill and swallowed it along with the whole content of the cup. Nothing hurt right out of the bat, so Sal didn't worry about it immediately. He put the cup back in the sink and plopped onto the chair again. There was still unfinished business in that laptop, and Sal was going to take care of it.

…Or so he wished. Sal's mind went completely blank as soon as Inky Tracker's convoluted interface filled the screen. He enabled the internet and tried looking up what all those buttons and terms meant, but it was just too much for him to process in his current state of mind. A single note was all he managed to place before closing the laptop with an annoyed grunt – one with a higher pitch than usual as well. That pill sure worked fast!

"Great. At least something is going right today." He said out loud. This certainly was different to the voice he used to have, but it did fit his new appearance very well. Besides, it wasn't like the effect was permanent, so he could simply buy another brand or something if he started disliking it for some reason.

"Callie, I'm going." He yelled, assuming she was wearing headphones or at least with the sound up. He didn't expect her to come running after him.

"W-wait, you can't just leave like this! First, you're still wearing gramps' clothes." She rolled her eyes. "And we haven't even decided anything about the new you yet!"

He raised an eyebrow. "…Excuse me?"

"You know, if you keep acting like Sal, people are gonna find out you're Sal. Especially because we couldn't get you different colored prescription contacts." Callie explained as Sal slowly pulled his hand away from the doorknob. "You gotta be someone else, like a… Like a stage persona, yeah!"

"…Do I really now? I just want to go outside. I won't… Talk to anyone, I just want to go out there."

"Go out there and _what_?"

"Um." Sal went quiet for a while. "I… I don't know, okay! I just… I just… I just want to be someone again."

Callie paused, her facial expression turning unreadable. She was worried she had gone a little too far, but deep down even Sal knew she was right. Going outside without a clear purpose was more of a risk than a reward. And still…

"That's fair, but… I think it would be better if you at least tried to give it a shot!" Callie gave her characteristic grin. "It'll reduce the chances of something going wrong, trust me."

"…Fine. Though last time I trusted one of you two, I almost had an anesthetic-fueled panic attack in this bathroom. Do not disappoint me."

"Just take my word on this one," Callie raised her fist in the air, "it's going to be a lot of fun!"

Callie was right, actually. Sal was having a lot of fun!

The two of them made their way through Inkopolis, with Callie in her "secret" identity – Chloe Calamari – so no one would recognize her, of course. Sal felt uncomfortable while wearing some of Marie's casual clothes (which were few, and even fewer those that weren't kimonos), but luckily their first stop after leaving the apartment had been a huge department store. He soon found himself comforted by a Firefin facemask, a salmon-colored Zekko hoodie and orange hi-tops. They could probably have gotten those on the clothing store near Coral Complex, sure, but they'd have cost much more due to being aimed at the celebrities living there.

"Are you sure you don't wanna go do some turf war matches? I haven't really participated in any in forever, but I could really go for some dualies action right now!" Chloe cheered behind her own facemask.

"My turfing card is back at the apartment – Sal's apartment. And it would probably foil our whole plan, since I'd still show up as Sal in the room's waiting list." He explained, arms crossed. It was not like he didn't want to – he'd actually really enjoy the chance to try out some non-blaster weapons for once! But the consequences were clear.

"Aw, that's fair… Hey, about that. Don't you think it's time for you to choose a name for you? I think we've had enough time for you to sort out your persona and stuff. Like, it's been almost a week now."

A _name_? Sal crossed his arms, deep in thought. He was obviously faking his extroverted personality, but it was… Starting to grow on him in a way? It didn't feel natural to cheer or smile at the small things, but it didn't feel **wrong** anymore. He was trying to copy both Kama and Callie's energetic behavior and was slowly getting there each time he had to express himself.

Callie – or, Chloe? – was there to help him fine-tune the acting. It wasn't as if he was developing another self, after all, he was just overdoing the parts of personality that were always there but were repressed by his upbringing and filling the gaps with acting. Funny enough, he remembered getting some of the lowest grades of the whole school in drama class – but wasn't it just because he couldn't memorize his lines very well?

Overall, he was doing a pretty convincing job of being someone else, and he needed a name to match that. A name with equally high silliness and energy, a name that showed everyone he – no, **she** was the big deal. A name like…

"Sally." She finally uncrossed her arms, smiling for Chloe. Not exactly _at_ her, since she was still wearing the Firefin facemask, but still smiling because of her.

"…Isn't that a bit uncreative?" Chloe let out a small chuckle.

"Well, it does encompass my other name, because I'm not entirely changing who I am – just trying a different approach. And Sally rhymes with Callie, which is where I got the inspiration for my personality from."

"Woah, you actually thought about that much in just a few seconds?" Chloe couldn't help but break her slightly introverted persona at the answer.

"Well… It's something I used to think about quite often." Sally's smile started to slowly morph into a frown behind the mask. "You know, some day I just started to think like… Sal can't do anything right, so why don't I become someone else? I've fantasized about doing that when I was younger, but I… Kinda realized I couldn't just leave Sal behind? So I just… Y'know…"

Sally suddenly stopped talking as she felt Chloe's hand landing gently on her shoulder, the disguised idol giving her a warm and reassuring smile… Which couldn't be seen behind the facemask, so she just made a thumbs-up with her free hand.

"…Oh yeah, by the way. This guy has been following us around for a while now. You wanna go and tell him off?" Chloe slightly nodded her head backwards. "I mean, unless he's doing it because he recognizes me, then we're gonna have to go back home and get another one of my costumes."

"Who?" Sally raised an eyebrow. "Actually, let's go through an alley or something so I can take a look at him without having to look directly."

Chloe nodded, and the two of them started to walk towards one of the many alleys of the street they were in. They ignored the first two, which were not long enough, before settling on the third. The empty super sea snail shells scattered on the ground made for a creepy atmosphere, but turning away would probably be a worse choice than continuing. As they reached the end of the alley, Sally started to slow down, almost stopping by the time they started to make the turn to follow the new street's regular traffic. She then took a brief glance of the path where they had just came from, and almost yelled.

Déjà vu.

An octoling. A mostly shaved head with a main tentacle running down the front. Vivid blue eyes that this time were focused on Sally's face. A golden ornament tucked on his left ear.

Sally – no, _Sal_ suddenly froze in place, forgetting everything that had been taught to him throughout the week. Out of all the people to be following them, Fen was probably the worst possible candidate. It would have been way easier to deal with a crazed Callie fan or someone who was looking to mug them, but this? Sal had no idea how he would react to that, much less how Sally would.

A nudge from Chloe was what brought him back to reality. _Think, what would Sally do,_ he asked himself _._ It felt like an eternity, but it really only took two seconds to figure that out.

Sally started powerwalking towards Fen. That had apparently startled the octoling, judging by his panicked expression. He looked left and right but found nothing but concrete walls and crude graffiti, so he instead opted to stand there with a very "trying to pretend I'm not frightened as hell" expression and holding his hands behind his back. Sally stopped a few feet before him, pointing her finger at his chest.

"Yo, creep! You better have a good reason to be following me and my friend. Don't think we can't defend ourselves just because we have no weapons with us right now. You're gonna get it as soon as you make a wrong move, so start explaining yourself right now!" Sally stomped her feet on the ground. She was relieved to hear Chloe's footsteps getting closer to her after she finished her speech.

"Ah! Um, I…" Fen fidgeted with his fingers. "I… Just thought you looked really fresh! And I... W-wanted to invite you two to go turfing with me, if that's okay..."

Sally raised an eyebrow. Really, that was the best excuse he could come up with? It almost sounded like something Kama would s–

Oh yeah, that's right. Kama probably taught him that. At least he seemed oblivious to the fact that Sally wasn't all that real.

"Geez, why didn't you just ask us upright then? No need to be nervous, we don't bite." Sally let out a huff. "And we're gonna have to refuse. I'm not from around Inkopolis so I don't have and don't pretend to make a turfing card from here. Too much bureaucracy, y'know? I'd rather just spend my time with something else before I go back home on Friday."

"Go back… Home? Friday?" Fen muttered. His expression slowly shifted from confused to desperate. "But… That's in two days! We can do… Um, we can do something else then! I want to spend time with you before you go back home, you seem like a really nice person!"

God, she had never seen Fen so desperate and flustered like that. Was that how he acted back in Octopolis? Was that how he acted when he was alone with Kama? Was that how he acted before ruining Sal's whole life by kissing Kama and set a stream of negative events in motion that–

 _Woah, calm down! Those are Sal thoughts, not Sally thoughts_. But just what was Sally thinking? Sal couldn't possibly imagine another outcome that wasn't Sally rejecting Fen's offer and then walking away with Chloe back to their apartment just to be safe. Sally didn't know who this guy was, didn't care, and was ready to yell at him if he ever tried to push further.

But Sal could surely convince her to change her mind.

"Welp, I was gonna say no, but I'm flattered now. Though I'm pretty busy today, so gimme your phone." Sally extended her hand towards Fen. "C'mon, I won't run away with it or anything like that. I'm not a bad person."

Fen didn't hesitate before putting his Clamsung Galaxy on Sally's hands. She made quick work, unlocking the phone ("default wallpaper, really?"), opening the calendar app and setting an event titled "Sally at Arrowana food court in 10 minutes" to the next day at 4:30 PM.


	9. You're my missing note

Despite being considered by Kama as the beacon of reason; the standard that must be followed at all costs; the digital moral compass that never de-calibrated, Sal had done a lot of dumb things over the years. It wasn't a big list, and a lot of things in it happened around him instead of being caused by him, but it was still a list regardless.

Inviting Fen to hang out with his temporary persona currently held the number one spot in it.

"Yes you _are_ going!" Callie huffed, trying – and succeeding – to push Sal off the couch. "Come help me already, Marie!"

"I'm busy." Marie waved her hand in the air dismissively while she browsed the splatnet with her phone, sitting on a couch on the opposite end of the room.

"Nothing will happen if I don't go." Sal didn't offer any resistance, and so Callie managed to push him straight onto the ground. He didn't try to get up, though, which seemed to irritate her even more.

"Yes it will, Fen will get sad!" Callie was trying to lift him off the ground by his shirt now, which proved to be a little more difficult as Sal looked lighter than he actually was.

"Fen's mood is not my responsibility until after my TV appearance."

"You're like, his second friend from Inkopolis not counting Pearl and Marina! It definitely is your responsibility!"

"He should ask the first friend then. Kama gives good advice sometimes."

Marie loudly cleared her throat to get their attention. "Oh yeah Sal, I forgot to mention it like three days ago, but I told Kama that you would be available to chat with him through texting today at like 4:30 PM. And I probably can't postpone it anymore. Oopises."

Both inklings stopped arguing and turned to look at Marie with different levels of discomfort on their faces. "What? At least I didn't completely forget about it."

"Not gonna lie, this is looking pretty bad now." Callie released her grip, making Sal fall back on the ground with a small grunt. "But… You still need to go!"

Sal closed his eyes for a moment, pondering. Of course he preferred to talk to Kama instead of going to Arrowana Mall with Fen. They had a lot to sort out, and he needed as much time as possible to make sure everything was fine between both of them. It was a serious subject, and he didn't want anything to distract him from it.

Unless… He did want distractions. He was already stressed enough already, and trying to make up with Kama would definitely worsen things. He needed something to ease the tension – before, after and during the conversation – and maybe this hangout with Fen could be just that. Not what he would call relaxing, but maybe something Sally would.

"Okay." Sal said after a while, turning around so he could look at Callie and Marie's expressions. The former had a small excited smile, while the latter was as painfully indifferent as always. "I'm going."

"Alright!" Callie raised her hands in the air, completely ignoring Sal gesturing for her to help him get back up. "You're not going like this, though. You have to wear something special for your date!"

Sal got up by himself, raising an eyebrow at Callie. "It's not a date. I have a boyfriend."

"Sally doesn't." Marie shrugged. Sal didn't look at her, but he could _feel_ she had a smirk on her face as she added that.

"Yeah, what she said!"

"Callie… No, both of you: **no**. This whole thing started because of boyfriend issues, so that's what I want the least right now." Sal sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"You could kiss him as well just so you and Kama are even." Marie let out a small chuckle. "Stop glaring at me as if you're aiming a charger at my head. It's unhealthy."

"This is not something you should be joking about. This is… This is serious business. Kama and Fen already got hurt enough because of me. If I ever slip up again… They won't be able to forgive me. Hell, I don't even know if Kama will forgive me because of this whole… Big, messy misunderstanding."

"Sorry." Marie muttered quietly, but genuinely. It was rare to hear her voice without the usual layers of sarcasm, both Sal and Callie weren't used to it.

"Alright, it's decided, no kissing and no romance until Sal sorts out his stuff." Callie announced, moving her arms to emphasize. "But! It's a special occasion nonetheless, and you definitely should look equally special!"

"I don't trust both of you with my appearance. Specially Marie." Sal let out a defeated sigh. "But… I have no choice. Do your worst."

 **Sal** Hello.

 **Kama** Oh, hey!

 **Kama** You messaged me earlier than planned… I haven't prepared my speech. :P

Sally didn't like how the cool air hit his exposed abdomen. Crop tops were not something inklings were used to wearing at all. If it was because of the past hostility towards octolings, or simply because no fashion designer had thought about the idea yet, she didn't know. But people were giving her weird looks. It wasn't until she had arrived at the train station that she began to feel better, as she was approached by a group of octolings who praised her for her fashion choice. She joined them with smiles (behind her facemask) and cheers, but her – or _their_ – mind was somewhere else.

 **Sal** No need for a speech. Let's just talk naturally like we always do.

 **Kama** Right right. Kinda nervous but I can do it for sure.

 **Sal** Me too.

It didn't take long before the train arrived. She was lucky the octolings were with her, or else she'd have gave in and dropped by one of the many clothing stores in the station just so she could buy something that actually covered every part of her torso. At least her pants were cute. Comfortable, soft, and made with the specific kind of fabric that changed colors to match the wearer's current ink color. The light blue contrasted with her sharp red eyes, but it was what she had chosen for the night.

 **Sal** I believe we have things to sort out.

 **Kama** Geez don't act so serious!

 **Kama** I kinda wanted to talk to you about this face to face… But I understand this might be better for you at the moment.

Sally was surprised to see a small octoling girl come up to her and gently tug her clothing. Her tentacles were tied above her head, exposing her pale and round face. She was missing a few of them, incidentally, and also had a bandage over her left eye. To Sally, she looked like she was younger than 14. The octoling pointed at the handlebars above their heads, and Sally soon understood what she wanted. She gave the girl a warm smile, which prompted her to completely wrap her arms around Sally's legs. She felt warm.

 **Kama** Well… Guess I can start by saying sorry.

 **Kama** I'm sorry for saying that and making you break your favorite glasses.

 **Kama** I'm sorry for not keeping you informed on what was going on with me and Fen.

 **Kama** Sorry ruining that match for you.

 **Kama** Sorry for staining your public image like that.

 **Kama** And sorry for just… Being a bad boyfriend and betraying your trust in general.

The octolings started going away one by one at each station, until it was finally the little girl's turn. She gave Sally a tight hug before walking away. Sally kept looking at her even as the train had already departed. There was something about her that reminded Sally of two people she knew. She also used the same perfume as Lin did. She didn't know if that was a coincidence or not, but she couldn't stop thinking about it even as she typed away at her phone. She couldn't help but cling to the small moments, sensations she had never let herself feel before.

 **Sal** I understand.

 **Sal** It might be too early, but I forgive you.

 **Kama** Woah really?

 **Kama** I don't think I deserve it but… Thanks a ton!

 **Sal** Whether you deserve it or not is out of the question for now.

It was only a couple of minutes before they had finally arrived at Sally's stop. Looking at the top of her screen, she saw that she had arrived much earlier than expected. There was still a whole hour before her meeting with Fen. She headed towards the food court of the station she was currently in. Kind of redundant, considering the place she was going to meet Fen at, but food would surely help her calm down. Nervousness, excitement, fear. It all seemed to go away after a small cup of hot chocolate.

 **Kama** Yeah yeah, we can discuss this later.

 **Kama** So…

 **Sal** I think it's my turn.

 **Kama** No way, you didn't do anything!

 **Sal** Let me speak.

One cup was not enough. Three was definitely too much, so she stopped there – but not before grabbing a pack of chips. It was definitely making it harder to type, but she could clean the screen after she finished eating. That was something Sal worried about, not her. As long as she could still make out the words on screen, there wasn't an issue with it. Her mouth was met with an empty hand a few times, because she was more focused on typing than anything else. That was an important moment.

 **Sal** I am sorry for not trusting your relationship with Fen.

 **Sal** I am sorry for yelling at you.

 **Sal** I am sorry for making you cry. On live TV.

 **Sal** And I am sorry for not being the best boyfriend I can.

 _Phew, that was relieving._ Apologies were handed out, the screen was cleaned, and it was almost time to go. Sally cleaned her hands using disposable napkins – as she wasn't sure on what to do regarding the bathroom situation – and started walking away towards the mall. Most people travelled that road by bus or train, so the sidewalks were mostly empty. Sally crossed ways with a multitude of friendly inklings and octolings who smiled and complimented her outfit. She was starting to feel a little more confident about it now! She hoped Fen would find it good looking as well. He definitely pulled out that look better than she would ever be able to.

 **Kama** Awww that's so sweet of you. :0

 **Kama** Apologies accepted babe.

 **Kama** I feel like there's still more stuff to talk about though.

 **Sal** Indeed. We have to think about the future.

 **Sal** We both need to improve.

 **Sal** And there is no better time to start than today.

 **Kama** Agreed!

 **Kama** We can discuss this better after your thing. The TV thing.

 **Kama** Are you nervous about it?

Sally was soon greeted by automatic mall doors. The place was absolutely massive, with multiple floors, sections, stores and people. It was tempting to just browse the place for the ten minutes she had remaining, but she knew she would get lost pretty easily. One minute could easily turn into one hour in Arrowana Mall. There was also an entire section of the mall dedicated to watching the turf war and ranked matches that happened in the multiple courtyards outside the main building. Luckily, there was only one food court.

 **Sal** Absolutely. But I won't let that deter me from doing my best.

 **Kama** I'm nervous too. I mean, it's gotta be difficult to talk to millions of people.

 **Kama** Though I'm also excited to see your pretty face again! On TV!

 **Kama** Actually, can you send me a selfie?

 **Sal** Not really.

 **Sal** Marie is trying out all of her expired makeup on me and it's getting pretty ugly.

 **Kama** Oh yikes!

That was a good enough excuse for now, Sal could explain it to him later. Sally walked towards an empty part of the food court and sat down. There were dozens, maybe even hundreds of different kinds of food she could order. She kind of felt like doing so, but she had to wait for Fen. She quickly noticed spotting him would be an issue, as the place was quickly getting crowded. There was still a minute left for 4:30 PM, though, so she took this small window to try and wrap things up with Kama.

 **Kama** Hope you don't die.

 **Sal** I'll try.

 **Sal** Not after that stormy night.

 **Kama** Wait what?

 **Kama** What happened that night?

 **Sal** What do you mean? I thought Callie had told you.

 **Kama** Nah, she just told me you were hiding on top of a building.

 **Sal** Oh.

Fen had to arrive just as the conversation hit a sensitive spot, didn't he? All he did was make Sal's life harder, from the very day he arrived at Inkop– **No**. Sally immediately cut off that line of thought, both because it wasn't her thought and because it wasn't a very nice one to begin with. Sally waved at him for a whole minute before he finally took notice of her presence, rushing to her table. She locked the phone and put it face down onto the table as he sat down.

"Sorry, this place is pretty big… I've never been here before." Fen's breathing began to slow down.

"No biggie. I'd have gotten your number and stuff, but I forgot my phone at home that." Sally nodded to look more convincing. It wasn't a lie, at least. The phone he was currently using was one of Marie's old ones. "Also, I don't think I've caught your name. You should now mine, I wrote it down for you."

"Ah! Yes, I'm sorry… My name is Fen."

"Fen… Sounds nice. So, Fen, first time here?"

"Mhm. I've come to Inkopolis about… a month or two ago? But I haven't really left my home. I'm staying over at Pearl's house, and sometimes I get l–"

"Woah woah woah! Wait a minute. Pearl as in, Off the Hook's Pearl?" Sally let out an exaggerated gasp at his little nod. That explained a lot. "Woah! You must be famous and stuff! Are you one of her childhood friends? Or are you like, Marina's sibling or something? I can't really wrap my head around the fact that someone dressed like that – no offense – knows and is close friends with Pearl."

"Is… Is there something wrong with my outfit?" Fen gulped. He was currently wearing a denim jacket, Annaki-brand boots and simple black shorts. A pair of pilot goggles also rested on his head, with his main tentacle resting in between the lenses.

"Course not, dummy. I mean like… You know how Pearl is, she always likes expensive and over the top stuff. Shiny too. I bet she tried to make you wear some of that, huh?"

"Yeah, she suggested it. But it's not really my style." He nodded.

"Well, answer my other questions now. Do you know Marina too, or?" Sally was internally cursing herself for being so passive aggressive to Fen, but it was the most realistic way to go about it. They barely knew each other, after all.

"I don't know if I can't say much – I haven't asked them – but… Let's just say they rescued me from a really bad place."

"Oh, so like, charity work? I'm sorry for bringing that up, man, didn't know it was sensitive stuff." Sally took the small moment of silence between them to check on her incessantly vibrating phone.

 **Kama** Sal? You still there.

 **Sal** Yes. Just thinking.

 **Kama** Don't sweat it. Talking naturally, remember?

 **Sal** Yes, I am aware. But…

 **Sal** I guess there is no easy way to put this.

 **Sal** I tried to kill myself after that match.

Oof, heavy stuff. Luckily for Sally, Fen cleared his throat right as she was about to let herself be overcome with guilt.

"It's fine, it's fine! It isn't that serious. I mean… It kind of is, but I'm not hurt by it anymore." Fen smiled. "Can we go back to talking about clothes, just for a moment."

"Of course, man. Anything you wanna ask." She locked her phone once again.

"Not really a question, but I do like your outfit a lot! I think you look really good in a crop top." Score! "…Actually, there is a question. Why are you wearing a face mask again?"

Sally smirked behind the mask. She had come prepared to answer that. "Depends. You want the cool answer or the lame answer?"

Fen blinked. "Uh… The cool one?"

"It's because my face is so pretty it distracts people from what they're doing and makes them look at it."

"Ah. I believe that," Fen let out a chuckle, "but what's the lame answer?"

"Fell on my face as a kid. Left a pretty nasty scar on my mouth. I was kinda self-conscious of it at first, but now I just like wearing masks. It became sorta like, part of my identity, you know?"

"Oh, I see! That's a really cool answer, in my opinion."

"Of course it is, everything I say is cool!" Sally laughed a bit, picking up her phone. "Now gimme a minute. Chloe's talking to me."

 **Kama** Oh.

 **Kama** Sal?

 **Kama** Oh my god Sal.

 **Kama** I'm so sorry.

 **Kama** Holy mackerel I had no idea.

 **Kama** I feel like trash right now oh my god.

 **Sal** Stop apologizing.

 **Sal** It is my fault.

 **Kama** Sal…

 **Sal** It is my fault. I admit now that it was very wrong of me.

 **Sal** If anything, I am the one who should be apologizing.

 **Sal** For putting that sort of mental strain on you. All of you.

 **Kama** I want to hug you so bad right now.

 **Kama** I'm kinda tearing up right now is that ok?

 **Sal** That is not something that I should decide.

 **Sal** Dork.

 **Kama** I love you.

 **Sal** I love you too.

"Aaand done!" Sally put her phone down and stretched. "Now I'm all yours, big boy. What do you have in store for us? You planned something, right?"

"I did, actually! I only planned two things, but I did plan them. The first one is getting something to drink. I mean, you can get something to eat too if you want, but I'm not going to join you because I've ate a lot because I was nervous…" He let out an embarrassed chuckle.

 **Oof**. Spot on.

"Me too. I mean, I wasn't nervous cause I'm really cool, I just felt like eating a lot of junk." Sally got up and took a look around. "I'm thinking… Milkshakes? My boyfriend– I mean, my ex really liked them. I kinda wanna like, drink and like it more than him, just to spite him, y'know?"

Nice save. Fen seemed a little unsure – if not intimidated – but he ultimately complied and they walked together towards one of the places in the food court that sold milkshakes. Sally got a blueberry one. Fen glanced over at her before ordering, leaving his spot on the line.

"Is something wrong with it? You look kind of disappointed."

"Kinda. Tastes great, but I expected it to be a little more… Blue, y'know?" She raised the semitransparent cup next to her light blue tentacles. "I wanted to match."

"I see… Give me a minute."

Fen joined the line once again, and ordered a banana smoothie. He raised his own cup next to his tentacle. The faint, almost white yellow of the liquid didn't quite match the light yellow on his tentacles. "Not what I expected either, but it's close enough. Now we're both almost matching."

Sally couldn't help but let out a snicker. "Gosh, you're adorable."

"Ah, thanks." He rubbed the back of his neck, his cheeks acquiring a small yellow blush. "Um… We can drink on the go. It's going to take a while to get there, so a drink will help us have enough energy."

"Aye aye. Don't mind if talk to Chloe some more."

 **Sal** I do want to ask something.

 **Sal** How did Fen react to the whole… Situation?

 **Kama** Yeah, about that… He was really sad, blaming himself and stuff.

 **Kama** But it's okay now! I've managed to put him in a better mood.

 **Kama** He even made some friends! Right now, he's even hanging out with an inkling he met yesterday!

 **Kama** You think he can get his first girlfriend? ;P

Sally briefly looked towards Fen, who had managed to distract himself with the bendy straw of his drink somehow. She rolled here eyes and aimed them at the phone screen once more.

 **Sal** Perhaps. He is indeed quite handsome.

 **Kama** Now you know why I kissed him.

 **Kama** …I'm sorry for that. I don't know whether you're over that or not.

 **Sal** A little. I am aware now that it was all a misunderstanding, but I can still feel some of the anger I've felt as I took in the sight.

 **Sal** You can keep joking, though.

 **Kama** Heheh, thanks.

 **Kama** You really meant what you said about his appearance though?

 **Sal** I cannot deny he is good looking.

 **Sal** Why do you ask?

 **Kama** Well, I…

 **Kama** We…

 **Kama** Actually, this is something best talked about in person. Don't wanna disrupt whatever you and Marie are doing.

 **Sal** Oh? I am scared.

 **Kama** It's nothing bad, don't worry! I'm not jealous of you and Fen, heh.

 **Sal** There is nothing to be jealous of.

 **Kama** ;)

 **Sal** What does that mean?

 **Kama** Nothing!

 **Kama** See you later I gotta go grab some food and then go turfing.

 **Kama** Love you!

 **Sal** Goodbye, love you two.

That last bit of the conversation certainly intrigued Sally, but she didn't think much of it. She and Fen made small talk throughout the trip, not exactly learning a lot about each other but still having fun. Sally suspected he was trying to hold the more meaningful conversation topics for when they arrived at the "special spot" Fen had picked for them – which turned out to be none other than Deca Tower. Sally was a little skeptical about if it would work, because of her lack of a turfing card, but Fen managed to give her a guest pass, meaning she could walk inside the structure but not participate in battles of any kind. That was more than enough.

Sally had never seen that elevator before, right at the end of Deca Tower's main lobby. It was simpler and much older-looking than the towers "lobbies", but it fortunately did not malfunction while they were inside. After a minute or two, the doors opened and they were greeted with an empty room with a steel door at the opposite end. Sally originally thought nothing of it, but she took a step back and audibly gasped once she realized that she was in the roof area.

"Sally? Are you alright?" Fen looked at her with a frown.

"Yeah, I'm good. Just… A lil afraid of heights, that's all." Sally was obviously uncomfortable, but for different reasons than those Fen was thinking about. She could still hear and _feel_ the rain in her mind.

"Don't worry, let's… Uh, excuse me." Fen grabbed Sally's hand all of a sudden, and pulled her closer to the middle. Fen then sat down, and Sally quickly followed his lead. "The guard rails are kinda like walls, so you can't see down there anymore. But we can still see the stars."

"Your neck is gonna hurt if you keep looking at the sky like that for too long, silly. Let's just…" Sally leaned backwards until she was laying down on her back. Fen copied her. "There we go. And… You're still holding my hand."

"Oh, sorry–"

"Nah, keep doing it. I like it."

Sally had no idea where that had come from, but it just felt like the right thing to say. Maybe she just wanted to cling to someone, following Sal's bad past experience with the place, or maybe it was something deeper. But she really enjoyed how warm and soft his hands felt.

"So… How was your childhood like? I don't know anything about octoling culture, so… Teach me something new. I'll gladly listen." Sally asked.

"Well… Kinda rough, to be honest. We're always training to fight, and we're not allowed to do some things… Not even music is allowed down there. I luckily never got into any trouble, since… Not to brag, but I was pretty skilled at what they assigned me to."

"Oh damn, not even music? Sounds really rough, I'm sorry you had to go through that." She let out a sigh. "I know you just told me it was bad, but… Do you miss anything from there? The octoling city, I mean."

"Octopolis." He clarified. "And… I suppose I miss some things. I've never had a family, for… complicated reasons, but I've made a lot of great friends. It felt sad leaving them behind, but it was what I had to do."

Sally nodded, but didn't say anything else, so Fen proceeded. "Inkopolis isn't perfect. I still don't understand some things like… Fashion, and splatfests, and… the mentality behind turf war in general, but… It feels like home. Or what home was before the war. What home should be."

"Deep." Sally nodded, glancing over at him. "Sorry for not saying a lot. I haven't experienced anything that relates to that, so I can't really empathize. But I can sympathize."

Fen smiled at her. "…I thought those meant the same things."

"Me too, to be honest. I felt so smart when I learned what the difference was." Sally let out a hearty chuckle. "Empathy is when like… You understand how someone feels because you've had a similar experience. Sympathy is when you understand but didn't have any."

"Oh! I do feel a little smarter now."

"Heck yeah."

There was a small moment of silence in between them – a comfortable one. Closing her eyes, Sally could really focus on the contact in between them. Sal had loved the sensation back when they first held hands for practical reasons, and he was glad Sally got the opportunity to experience that as well. She felt like she could have fallen asleep right there, but Fen's voice brought her back before she could do so.

"So… How was yours?"

"Eh. It was… It kinda sucked as well." She confessed. "Parents hated me. Classmates pitied me. I didn't really escape here like you did, but it felt like doing so. Though after being trapped there for so long, being forced to be a lamer version of myself… When I first arrived here I was completely lost. Physically and emotionally. I still am, to some degree. Sometimes I don't even know what I'm good at anymore."

Fen looked at her with a sorrowful expression. "I'm sorry to hear that. I Sympathize."

"Thanks." Sally shifted so that she was sitting up, looking down at her lap. "I just feel like a… I don't know. Sometimes I feel like an incomplete song."

"Oh?" Fen blinked, then mimicked her position once again. "How so?"

"Well… Doesn't make a lot of sense when I say it out loud but I just… Y'know when you have the urge to make something all of a sudden? Well, I guess this urge made me try to compose a song. I was unsure at first, but I eventually found my way by trying similar techniques to songs I liked. But then at some point my… my brain just blacked out, I guess. Suddenly I didn't understand anything anymore, the music program was too complicated for me and what I was doing before didn't seem to sound right anymore. I was too overwhelmed to do anything and I… And I tried giving up. Two times. My friends encouraged me to go on, but… I don't know. I feel like I don't have a reason to go on anymore. My… My urge is going away."

Fen listened to the whole thing carefully, then raised a hand to his chin. Sally watched the expression on his face change ever so slightly. She could feel that he was getting somewhere, and awaited eagerly for his response.

"I see. Well… There are basically two ways to go on that. I mean… I don't know if… I've tried music a few times back at home – illegally, of course – and I've learned some things that might help you. I don't know if you're going to be able to use them as life lessons, but… I can try. Can I?"

Sally quickly nodded.

"Well… The first one is to learn the program. Take your own time going over each option and stuff. It… It's probably best in your case, since you're working because of an urge, but… I think that, if you managed to hold it throughout the whole learning process, you're going to end up doing something great when you get the hang of things."

Sally kept quiet, but Fen could see it in her eyes that she was paying attention. He gave her a while to reflect, and then continued.

"The other one is… Get a simpler program. When you're good at making songs, you're definitely going to use all those settings in one way or another. But for now? Keeping things simple and clean, and only do what you know how to do. Sometimes there's no… Big theoretically proven reason to place a new note, but it makes the song sound good. And… In the end, that's all that matters, right?"

Sally stayed quiet for what felt like an eternity. Fen looked eagerly at her face, searching for whatever emotion was going through her at the moment. In the end, she looked at him with warmth in her eyes. He couldn't see behind the facemask, but he could feel that she was smiling at that moment.

"That… Makes a lot of sense, actually." Sally finally said, slowly nodding her head. "I'll try these. I… I think I can really improve if I keep that in mind. Thank you so much, Fen."

Both of them suddenly noticed just how close they had gotten from each other. Their noses were almost touching, and they could feel each other's warm breath in their faces. Both of them blushed, but neither of them backed up.

"You've composed before, right? Or at least tried." Sally gulped, a hint of embarrassment and shyness in her voice replacing her usual confidence and small superiority complex. "I don't… I'm going back home on Friday, so there's no way you can help me finish my whole song. But maybe… I feel like adding a note, and you have just the sound I need."

Fen had done this before, so he knew where this was going next. He closed his eyes and slightly parted his lips. Sally pulled down her facemask, without regret or fear that he might recognize her as someone else. She didn't care. She grasped his cheeks with both of her hands, and pulled him closer. As soon as her lips touched, even if for a small moment, Sally felt like she was her own person. Like she could do anything, **be** anything.

Both Sally and Sal felt like their song was one step closer to being completed. They just needed someone to play it with.


	10. Two-Hour Vacation

**A/N: The title of the song might not fight the chapter very well, but I've been wanting to make that the name of the final chapter ever since I started outlining the fic. It's a reference to an amazing song by Hikaru Utada (whose title does translate to two-hour vacation)!**

 **This is the final chapter! More on that on the end notes.**

 **Enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

The rest of the night after that kiss had been a blast. Fen and Sally talked some more, shared their interests with each other, and stargazed in a comfortable silence. After all of that, the alarm that Sally had set on her phone finally rang. Fen was nice enough to walk her to the bus station, and she waved at him through the bus window as it slowly took off. She let herself slump back on the chair, closing her eyes and enjoying the warm feeling in her chest for a good five minutes before she realized she wasn't really "going back home".

Callie and Marie were initially not so pleased to have to pick up Sal at a creepy abandoned human gas station (what were those for anyways?) in a road in the middle of nowhere, but were very happy to find out the night had been a success. Sal gushed to them about his feelings all through the car trip, and even gave Marie a few more of his thoughts as she was styling his tentacles back to their previous shape in the apartment. The anesthetic probably made him share some way too personal details, but the Squid Sister didn't seem to mind. It was only after he woke up from his peaceful dreaming that he realized why Marie had a frown on her face the night prior.

Despite having a great night, his feelings infatuation and joy didn't last for long. The world still remembered what he had done – or at least Inkopolis did. The tinted windows of the car shielded him from the outside world from Coral Complex to the Inkopolis News Studio parking lot. But once he took a single step out in the open, it was like being hit by a slosh of cold ink.

An angry crowd emerged out of nowhere, and made sure Sal's few meters until the building entrance felt like an eternity spent in hell. Some booed, some tried throwing leftover food at him, and some simply stared in disdain. A plastic cup managed to hit one of his still sensitive tentacles, which made him flinch. Callie and Marie's bodyguards decided that was enough, and forcibly pushed him inside of the building so nothing worse could be thrown at him right before the show.

A show. That's what the whole ordeal was. It seemed like Marie had left out some important details once again. Sal was shoved into a backstage by an impatient jellyfish director and handed a contract and a pen. He didn't have much time to read its contents with said person yelling for him to hurry up every five seconds, but he managed to catch a glimpse of a few passages that made him realize the unfortunate truth about the event he was about to take part in. And he had no choice but to sign it without looking back.

Inklings, as one would expect, were never too fond of bureaucracy. "Basic" crimes like stealing, sexual harassment and even the rare murder and terrorism were punished by imprisonment followed by a rehabilitation period. Most of the people who went through this system turned out pretty well, in fact! The media also made a great deal of speaking well about those people to try and mend their broken reputation so they could fit back into society. It was easy, relatively quick and efficient. Crime rate had always been pretty low in Inkopolis anyways – save for during the euphoric and chaotic shopping frenzies of Sac Friday.

But for more complex crimes? Inklings simply could not dedicate enough brainpower for thinking about the adequate punishment for those. Sal was originally going to go through the regular imprisonment process, but the vagueness of his words and Marie's appeal made them reconsider. If there was truly more to this situation like the Squid Sister argued, then they couldn't just treat Sal like a regular criminal. But then, what to do? The solution the justice officials had found for these sorts of occurrences was rather simple and sounded really stupid in practice.

But what a better way of solving a moral conundrum than with a Splatfest, right?

Sal was given little time to change into the black and white striped uniform that all culprits wore during these ceremonies. A quick Beloogle searched before turning off his phone showed that this was apparently a traditional prison uniform in human culture. Cheesy, but none of the inklings new that. It just looked bad enough so that the culprit was immediately negatively recognized.

After climbing some stairs and walking past numerous offices and control rooms, Sal and the rest of the staff arrived at the studio. It was much like a theater, with a wooden stage behind red silky curtains. A particularly uncomfortable red stool stood right in the middle of the stage, and Sal was told to sit there, change his ink color to gray and try to always look at the camera. Two x's made of tape – one black, one white – were positioned in opposite ends of the stage to symbolize where the "attorneys" should stand. The responsible entity from the Inkopolis Justice Department, Mazu (who was "coincidentally" President Nazu's son) was already sitting by the Judge's Bench with the characteristic stupid grinning lips and dead-looking googly eyes staring forward. Besides the bench were two luxurious looking seats for additional people to sit on – usually the victims or the culprit's family (if any were left, depending of the crime).

Both of those were going to have a negative impact on Sal's mind if they arrived at that moment, so he casually ignored their existence.

Outside of the stage were a multitude of cameras that would capture the "trial" from a multitude of different angles, and a big flat screen showing a live feed of both Inkopolis Square and Plaza. Sal's heart tightened as he saw there were already hundreds, if not thousands of Inklings and Octolings waiting eagerly for the show to begin.

A smaller screen was positioned under it, showing what was currently on air – nothing currently, but he would be able to see himself from it when the show started. There were also two teleprompters on the wall, one for each of the hosts to read from.

He couldn't help but try to look for Kama and Fen in the audience, but he knew it was a fruitless effort. Knowing Fen, he would probably be watching it from the comfort of his… Pearl's home if he has the chance to do so. How amazing that just one night gave Sal more insight into Fen's life and personality than Kama did in a few months.

But this wasn't the time to be salty. Regardless of whether or not the population of Inkopolis pleaded him guilty, he was going to work to become a better person. Filtering his thoughts was a simple (though not easy) enough starting point.

Sal had about ten minutes to do that, before one of the staff members gave the cue that the show was about to start. Sal's eyes shot up from his lap and focused onto a random point in the red curtains where he estimated the camera would be pointing at. The lighting was reorganized, the horrendously unfitting waiting music was turned off and everything stood completely still and quiet for about a second. Two sets of steps could be heard coming from opposite sides of the stage in front of the curtain. These sorts of things were usually presented by the current hosts of Inkopolis News, so Sal had a guess as to who they belonged to.

"Y'all know what time it is!" Pearl's high-pitched voice chimed, making the audience on the other side of the screen cheer.

"It's Off the Hook, coming at you LIVE – this time, from Studio 5!" More cheers erupted as Marina spoke. Even though she lost most of the Splatfests so far, she was still a fan favorite.

"Yo, Marina? What's with these fancy outfits we got? Something special going on here today?"

"Of course, Pearlie! There is a very special event going to occur today, remember?"

"Oh, I do now! Look's like someone's been naughty again, cause it's Thrilling Trial time!"

The cheers erupted once more as the curtains were raised, and they immediately stopped as Sal's whole body got within the cameras view. This was a normal occurrence – after all, it wasn't a good idea to cheer for someone who might be a criminal – but it still made Sal's anxiety skyrocket. He could now see Pearl and Marina, who were wearing fancily tailored suits – black for Pearl, white for Marina. They each stood over the tape x's that matched their suit's color and did the Off the Hook pose.

"So who's this guy anyways? He looks fairly normal to me." Pearl turned to face Sal. "Did you murder someone? I'm not afraid of you, so we can settle this right now if that's a yes!"

Sal kept his best neutral face on and continued to stare at the camera. The staff were very clear when telling Sal he wasn't supposed to say anything at all, and so he remained quiet. He wasn't sure what Pearl and Marina's actual position on the whole situation was, but onstage they were just acting as they were told to.

"Calm down Pearlie, you're supposed to be on his side!" Marina gasped, then cleared her throat. "I suppose everyone is just as confused as you, as it has been quite some time since the last one of these happened. But before reviewing the rules, why don't we take a look at just what situation this guy got into?"

As Marina finished saying that, a monitor descended from the ceiling and right in front of Sal, covering him entirely. He obviously couldn't see what was being streamed on it, but he was indeed able to hear it. The sound of him throwing his weapon against the wall, his tantrum, his escape, Kama's sobs. Scenes that were starting to feel like vague memories returned to Sal's mind at full force. When the footage ended and the monitor went back up, Sal couldn't look directly at the camera anymore, instead focusing on the ground. He knew their expressions were far from happy.

"Well, what do you think, Pearl?"

"You know… I originally didn't like the guy, but Acrodolphins kinda broke the rules, didn't they? And the ranked committee decided not to punish the guy who replaced Boto in the match, so Sal's reaction is justified."

"But Pearl, don't you think he shouldn't have reacted like that? He could have damaged both his weapon and the wall!"

"Pfft, Sheldon makes weapons sturdier than that. And the place whole place was a mine before being turned into a stage, so the walls are solid rock. If he really did break the wall, then we'd have a much worse issue on our hands. And everyone gets emotional after a game as intense as that!"

"That is right," Marina took a staged pause, "But what about the people he hurt? He even made an inkling cry!"

"I mean… that's his fault for being sensitive. If just a little yelling makes you cry, then you don't deserve to be in X rank!"

"Indeed, but the inkling didn't play ranked regularly! According to some reports, he was just there to cheer Sal up!"

"Hm… That's kinda jerkish, yeah… But he didn't break any rules!"

"That's where you're wrong, Pearl. As you can see in the video, he actually shouted something quite mean at the octoling that was there with him. Xenophobia is, in fact, against the ranked rules, as well as against the law! And with the surge of new octolings coming to Inkopolis as of late… this is definitely not a good first impression of us!"

"You've got a point… But I do too! How are we gonna decide what to do now, Marina?"

"I guess now is a good time to take a look at our rules!" Marina took a few steps forward so she'd be right beside the monitor that descended again. "Justice is not something we can do alone, and that's why we need help from you guys watching us right now! In the following minutes, the Splatfest tee booths will be activated. You have the option to pick a side – innocent or guilty – and fight for your opinion in the good old-fashioned way! It will only last half a day as opposed to the regular 24-hour Splatfests, since this needs to be sorted out as soon as possible. The Splatfest will last from 10:00 AM until 10:00 PM, and the results will be delivered shortly after."

Once Marina had finished reading her part of the script from the teleprompter, it was Pearl's time to step forward. "Whatever team wins gets to have their wish fulfilled. Do you think Sal was unjustly accused? Or do you want this naughty boy to get the punishment he deserves? Make sure to let us know in five…four… three… two… one… Now!"

The monitor was raised for the last time, and now Sal could see the lines forming in front of the various Splatfest tee booths scattered across Inkopolis. Pearl and Marina kept their pose until the program went off air, then let out sighs – not of relief, it seemed. They turned towards each other and muttered some things, before finally starting to walk towards Sal. Though he would never know what they intended to tell him, as he was quickly escorted by a small group of security guards to somewhere else in the facility.

Sal let his husk of a body trail along with them. He was shocked, horrified. None of the details involving the situation were given out to the public. Heck, the trail announcement lasted less than twenty minutes. Some people wouldn't even know what was going on unless they dug for it on the internet. Some people would probably end up choosing whichever side their favorite idol was supporting. Pearl represent the "Team Innocent", and her side usually did end up winning most Splatfests, but Sal was far from relaxed. Even though the idea of the whole population voting about something together seemed nice on paper, the thought of an _under-informed_ population deciding the next two to five years of his life made it clear that the system was more than flawed.

Sal wanted something else to happen. He was honestly kind of expecting Kama to burst into the studio, fight his way to the stage and explain everything in front of the cameras. He'd grab Sal's hand, and the two of them would escape and live their life somewhere else. Maybe Fen would join in too. The three of them, in a distant land, enjoying each other's company. Sal would be skeptical at first, since the urban lifestyle and turfing was what he was the best at and enjoyed the most, but the other two would convince him with words and kisses.

But that wasn't what happened, was it? Sal revisited the scenario multiple times in his head, and each time he did it sound less and less realistic. He should be "smart one" of the group. His life wasn't a love story. It fit more in the drama genre as it was now. Maybe he could sell books about a fiction-heavy version of what happened ever since Fen arrived. " _Octodrama_ " sounded like a good enough title for him.

Sal was about to start thinking about his future author pseudonym when reality slapped him in the face once again. One of the guards – a muscular sea angel that could probably snap his spine in half with ease if he had one – said a few words that didn't quite register in his head. He was then shoved into a room, and locked in there from the outside.

There were three rooms in total. The room he was currently at had a multitude of plushies, pillows and other soft things he could use to sleep better. The one to the left had a TV and a computer with limited internet access but with a variety of movies, games and songs. The one to the right was almost completely made out of inkable materials, and there was a Splattershot Jr and an ink tank on the ground.

Was that some sort of… therapy room? Either that, or it was some sort of room where parent left their young children while they were working in the building. Sal was a tiny bit offended they were keeping him in a place clearly meant for children, but he could use a good rest. After all, he had only twelve hours until the trial results were released. He didn't know what jail was like, but he definitely knew he wouldn't have access to Inkpath Traveler there.

It started out nice enough. Blasting Off the Hook songs while he grinded in an RPG was something he'd never expect to do while in captivity, but it was fun enough to keep him distracted for a few hours. The guards had also brought food for him as well! Sal didn't enjoy Crust Bucket food as much as Kama did, but he wasn't opposed to it – even after feeling every single artery in his body being clogged after just one bite.

Sal had gone through the whole media library they had to offer, but the Squid Sisters themed analog clock on the main room wall showed that only four hours had passed. Painting the small blank room with the Splattershot Jr was fun at first, but there was no way to clean the ink and start again. And in a closed space like that, the ink-decomposing bacteria would take at least six hours to completely clean that mess.

Finally, he resorted to sleeping. Hugging as many plushies as he could, he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep. But every time he looked at the clock, only five or ten minutes passed even though it felt like a whole hour had gone by. Sal felt like screaming, but he didn't know if the camera pointed right at him also recorded sounds. He felt like he had gone through the five stages of grief a hundred times and in multiple different orders before the door opened again.

"Sal? Are you asleep?" Kama asked, tiptoeing into the room. The door was the slammed and locked shut behind him, nullifying his efforts.

"Can't do it with the lights on, can't find the switches." Sal sat up, fetching his glasses on top of a big squid-form Marie plushie and putting them on. "How did you get here?"

"Got invited. I was thinking of grabbing my dualies and helping you break out of this place by force, but they actually asked me to come here. Didn't want it to be so late, but I'll take whatever I can get to see my boyfriend."

 _Maybe "Octodrama" wasn't so far from being a reality after all._

Sal quickly glanced up at the clock. 8:07 PM. Roughly two hours left until the results came. "Come sit here. We need to have the talk."

"I was thinking about that, yeah." Kama smiled and threw himself into the plushie ocean. He was unfortunate enough to hit the bare floor, but he didn't seem to be injured. He grabbed a zapfish plushie and put it on his lap. "So…"

Both of them remained in silence for a while. Sal was the first one to speak up. "…I must admit, I also forgot the specifics of our talk. Things have been going on a lot differently than expected."

"That's fine. That's what chat logs are for! Second best thing ever invented, after Squid Beats 2 of course."

Kama paused, picking up his phone and looking at the conversation they had the day prior. His smile slowly morphed into a frown as he scrolled up and down through the chat. "Well… We agreed to discuss this later yesterday… and today is later, so… do you think I deserve being forgotten?"

"Of course." Sal didn't skip a beat, keeping his neutral and serious expression. Kama had lived with him long enough to know that meant he was thinking carefully about his words as he spoke. "You did a… no, multiple bad things. But I know you didn't mean to. I understand you sometimes have trouble with your words."

"Man, you're too kind." Kama let out a nervous chuckle. "Are you sure you're not like… not even a little angry at me?"

"Of course I am angry. I'm angry my whole career just got possibly ruined just because there was a small misunderstanding that could have been avoided if our communication had been just a little more transparent. You broke my trust – and my glasses." Sal looked up at Kama and gave him a warm smile. "But that's alright. I made mistakes too. We all make mistakes. Even though we probably won't look at each other the same way for a while, I still love you. You're a good person, you just got thrown into a situation you weren't prepared to handle. Neither of us were."

"Yeah… I was a jerk to you. And… you know, thinking is not my strong suit. I thought the idea of having Fen replace Boto was genius at the time. I thought you were gonna be all like, _"oh man Fen's so good! I'm gonna start liking him now because he's interested in ranked and so am I!"_ or something like that. Not even I know what I was planning when I look back at it."

Kama sniffled, a faint red-tinted tear rolling down his cheeks. "After you ran out of the backstage, I just… I felt terrible. I thought you'd never want to even hear my name ever again. I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around… well, you. You've been so nice to me even after I did something terrible to you, and… and I don't know if I deserve all of this, man."

"Of course I'm being nice, because I know you can do better than this." Sal paused for a moment. "I don't mean that in a bad way. What I'm saying is… you probably remember how insufferable I was when we first met. Yet stuck with me and… believed in me, and I wouldn't have turned into the person I am today if it wasn't for you. And now it's the time for me to repay the favor. I want to help you improve, so none of this ever happens again. I want to help you improve because you deserve to have a good life. I know just shooting speech after speech won't automatically make your self-consciousness issues go away, but… I will do whatever I can to help you be strong enough to fight them on your own."

"I guess so." Kama finally smiled again, placing his hands on his lap. He was tearing up quicker than before, but his body language told Sal he was feeling much better than before. "I… I also feel I don't listen to you a lot. That's not something I can fix right away, but... if there's something you have to tell me, the time is now. I don't want there to be anything we regret not saying, in case you end up going to jail for a while."

Sal thought for a moment. Was there something he needed to say? It felt like they had traded all the necessary words. Apologies were made, promises were set, and their relationship was going to naturally heal as time went on. After all of this ended, they could finally be together. Him, Kama, and…

Oh right. _Fen_.

"I… actually do have something to tell you. Regarding Fen." Sal cleared his throat. He was pretty embarrassed to say that, but he had to. He was going to improve as well, and the first step for that was not holding back important information that might hurt the other. That's what started the whole incident, after all.

"Oh yeah, almost forgot! Fen is doing some turfing on your team. I wanted to be there as well, but… I didn't know if we'd have another opportunity to talk so soon, so I came here." Kama explained. "But yeah, what do you wanna tell me?"

"Well, you see… during the past week, I have… I haven't been my usual self. And I met Fen when I went out of the apartment, and one thing led to another, and… I'm s–"

"Oh, you mean the kiss thing? Fen told me about that"

Sal froze in place. "Excuse me?"

"Yeah, he told me he found you in disguise and wanted to take the opportunity to know you better." Kama shrugged. "In fact, I was actually the one who suggested him to kiss you! Y'know, so we'd be even."

"He knew that was me?"

"Yup. He said something about you smelling the same or something like that. Guess that's the kind of thing you learn in advanced reconnaissance class, I'm guessing."

Sal didn't speak for a long, long while. Kama was starting to get worried that he had made yet another relationship-ruining mistake, but then suddenly Sal burst into laughter. Kama did the same, although more awkwardly.

"You… you're the stinky one, you dumbass…" Sal managed to say, wiping the tears off his own face. "Well, congratulations. One of your questionable ideas actually worked. Though, does that mean we…?"

"I dunno. That was actually something I wanted to discuss with you, but I didn't know how chill you were with Fen until last night. I'd be up to it, the three of us." Kama reached for Sal's hands, intertwining their fingers together. "But that's your choice, dude. I don't want to make you even more uncomfortable than you already are."

"I… actually think this is a nice idea. You, me and Fen… and maybe even Sally, she was a good coping mechanism throughout all of this. I guess we could give it a try."

"It's set then! Oh man, you're going to have to buy a bigger bed for your apartment." Kama chuckled, releasing Sal's hands and looking around the room. "But I was being serious about the uncomfortable thing. Something about this room is giving me the creeps…"

"Nothing wrong with it, but it doesn't have the amount of stuff necessary to keep me distracted for twelve hours." Sal rubbed his eyelids. "I'm tired. Not just physically, but… I just want all of this to be over already."

"That's fine. How about we take a nap together?" Kama smiled, laying down and using one of the plushies as a pillow. "Our last nap as Sal and Kama. Regardless of the Trial results, when we wake up, we'll be… well, still Sal and Kama, but we're going to try harder."

"Right. We're going to try harder." Sal put his glasses far away from him and laid down as well. He laid on his back, then turned around so he was facing Kama. He then leaned forward and pressed his lips against his boyfriend's, staying in that position for as long as their lungs allowed. "Sleep well, hero."

The two then proceeded to drift off into a peaceful sleep. Fen, who had been overhearing the conversation for about five minutes, finally entered the room. His mind was filled with ease as he saw his two new boyfriends sleeping peacefully together. He watched them quietly for a few more minutes, and then decided to join. He laid down and slowly crawled in between them. It was a little uncomfortable at first, but after a feel minutes he felt himself being embraced by two pairs of arms. It didn't take long until he drifted into the quaint world of his dreams as well. The three of them could finally rest – although not for long. But none of them were concerned about the briefness of the moment. They just wanted to enjoy their little two-hour vacation together.

They were already awake when the guards entered the room to announce Sal had been pleaded innocent (by only _0.01%_ ), but they preferred to stay still until they left. After that, the three of them went back to Sal's apartment. Sal still got a few dirty stares as they walked, but he knew the television program meant to clean his image was going to come eventually.

There was no need to hurry anymore. They all knew things would get better eventually, one way or another.

* * *

 **A/N: There it is, the final chapter of Octodrama!**

 **I have to say, writing this was a really good experience. I was originally skeptical about writing yet another OC fic, as those haven't gotten a lot of attention in other fandoms. But all the love and support you guys gave me was enough to motivate me through the entire thing! I sincerely thank all of you that decided to stick with me until the very end. I hope this was as good of an experience for you as it was for me.**

 **Don't think this is the last you'll see of these boys, though! I have a prequel AND a sequel planned for the future! Though I'd like to take a bit of a break from these characters for now. I've got a few projects I have to finish, some one-shots to write and last year of high school to survive. The prequel will focus more on Kama, while the sequel will give the spotlight to Fen as well as a brand new agent!**

 **I have no more to say. I hope you all have a good day, and see you in the next fic!**


End file.
